How will these improvements help?
To help reduce disruption and improve travel during construction, the improvements are designed to move more people, not just more cars:
- Smarter traffic signals and lane adjustments to help reduce travel delays around the city. This includes introducing a high-occupancy vehicle lane (T2/T3) on Welcome Bay Road.
- Travel time messaging boards and better navigation app data.
- Support for efficient and alternative travel choices (e.g. walking, cycling, carpooling).
Tauranga has high dependency on single occupant cars, which contribute to congestion. Even a small shift to other modes of transport, such as carpooling, catching the bus, cycling, and walking will help to reduce the congestion on our roads. There is currently no funding for additional longer-term improvements, such as park and ride facilities or a more connected cycle network, but we can look at other improvements to try reducing congestion during this period of construction.
These improvements are expected to include:
High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes
High-occupancy vehicle lanes are for vehicles where two (T2), three (T3) or more people travelling in a vehicle can exclusively use the lane. This includes buses and people carpooling, if the minimum number of occupants are in the vehicle. Due to less single occupant cars being on the road, HOV lanes assist in reducing congestion and dedicated lanes improve travel times. The use of these lanes would be enforced by CCTV monitoring.
Stopping traffic turning across oncoming traffic
To improve traffic flows on major routes, we can stop traffic from turning right across the primary traffic flows. Not only can these turns be unsafe (as the vehicle is turning in front of oncoming traffic) but they can also disrupt the primary flow of traffic on these busy routes. Not allowing right hand turns at these intersections will be safer and allow traffic to flow more freely along these routes, thereby reducing congestion. These are referred to as left in / left out intersections.
High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane: Welcome Bay Road
The City Future Committee has approved all-day HOV lane on a section of Welcome Bay Road east of Meadowviews Drive through to the traffic signals near the Maungatapu underpass (westbound, towards the city). This would require changes to walking and cycling facilities and affect some parking spaces.
We are also proposing to add traffic signals at the Kaitemako Road intersection with Welcome Bay Road, to support vehicles turning into Welcome Bay Road and pedestrians crossing the road. This would replace the existing pedestrian refuge crossings either side of the intersection.
Proposed changes - Welcome Bay Road (187kb pdf)
Further community engagement on this project will get underway in mid-2026.
High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes: Hewletts Road
NZTA is also considering converting the SH2/Hewletts Road bus lanes to T3 (where three or more people travelling in a vehicle can use the lane) to further alleviate congestion. This is subject to available funding with a decision expected in mid-2026.
Enabling Right Turn from Ohauiti Road to Welcome Bay Road
Ohauiti Road currently has two left-turn lanes onto Welcome Bay Road (toward the SH29A roundabout). We are proposing converting one of those lanes into a right-turn lane.
This would let drivers turn right from Ohauiti Road into Welcome Bay Road without using the SH29A roundabout. It also includes removing the left-turn arrow from the centre lane on SH29A. As a result, there would be only one left-turn lane on Welcome Bay Road past Ohauiti Road.
The new right-turn would shorten trips from Ohauiti Road to Welcome Bay Road by avoiding delays at the Hairini Roundabout.
The proposed route is expected to stay much quicker during expected disruption. Moving some traffic away from the Hairini Roundabout should also make SH29A slightly faster.
Because this change affects SH29A, Council will need approval from NZTA. There will also be further discussion with the community on this proposed improvement.
Fraser Street and Fifteenth Avenue intersection improvements
We are looking to improve traffic efficiency at the intersection of Fraser Street and Fifteenth Avenue. This includes assessment of traffic signal timings, lane configurations, and lane lengths.
Proposed changes - Fraser Street Fourteenth to 17th Avenues (211kb pdf)
To improve traffic flows across the intersection, we are proposing to extend the exit lanes on Fraser Street, both northbound (north of Fifteenth Ave, toward the city) and southbound (south of Fifteenth Ave, toward Fraser Cove). Extending the exit lanes will involve continuing the current two lanes further along Fraser Street, which will allow more traffic to pass through the intersection during each phase of the lights.
The two northbound exit lanes would be extended to Fourteenth Avenue while the two southbound exit lanes would be extended to Sixteenth Avenue. This would result in the loss of two car parks between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Avenues and four car parks between Sixteenth and 17th Avenues. There will be a shared path south along Fraser Street, between Fifteenth and 17th Avenues.
The intersections at Fourteenth Avenue and Sixteenth Avenue have already been identified as high safety risk intersections. With an additional lane of traffic passing Fourteenth and Sixteenth Avenues, for safety purposes it is proposed to make both Fourteenth and Sixteenth Avenues ‘left in / left out' intersections. This means you would no longer be able to turn across the traffic on Fraser Street. This will have the effect of reducing congestion for vehicles travelling north and south along Fraser Street.
This work will be done as part of the construction of the Fifteenth Avenue to Welcome Bay project in 2027.