Bay Waka – Issue 10 – City Councillors Corner
With the new Maungatapu underpass to Welcome Bay opening soon, a cost-effective solution is being suggested as a quick option to provide relief to peak-time motorists using Fifteenth Avenue and Turret Road, sooner rather than later.
The current Council plan is to deliver a solution in 2026 at a cost of $60m to provide a continuous 4-lane road and duplicate bridge.
The alternative concept could potentially be in place much sooner and at considerably reduced cost.The idea is, to create only one additional lane within the existing road-space along Fifteenth Avenue and Turret Rd. This third lane would be used to implement a two-lane “tidal-flow” system – the extra lane switches direction to provide two continuous lanes for either the morning or afternoon peak flows.
Automated adaptive LED road markings imbedded into the road surface and overhead LED arrows would clearly define which lanes are open.
Now, here’s the really interesting bit… The existing two-lane bridge would be controlled by traffic lights so that the main flow is accommodated using both bridge lanes in one direction and one of the lanes is stopped long enough, at a frequency to allow time for the smaller opposing flow to pass over the bridge – just like at an intersection, or pedestrian controlled traffic lights.
Together, in collaboration with local architect and urban designer, Mark Wassung, a render of how the tidal-flow concept could look like, has already peaked a lot of interest.
Interestingly, when the old single-lane Turret Road bridge was still in place, it also had a traffic light system implemented to control the ‘to and fro’ traffic flow, until the time came for the current two-lane bridge to be built.
Maybe it is time to consider the wisdom of old and allow the TCC Traffic Control Centre to manage traffic lights and LED signage on the Turret Road bridge until such time as a replacement solution is implemented?
By Tauranga City Councillor, Rick Curach
I write for Bay Waka to inform local readers about new concepts of old.
