Rowesdale Drive, Ohauiti

There is a broader programme of work across Tauranga to improve the transport network, including through the Annual Plan process.

At a high level, these plans look to provide people with greater and safer transport choices. This work has a strong focus on the shift the city needs to make towards public transport and active modes (likely cycling) with less reliance on cars and our ability to always build our way out of congestion. It is also focussed on how we can reduce the need for travel by providing amenities like parks and shops locally.

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has undertaken some preliminary investigation of some relatively minor improvements to the SH29A / Poike Road roundabout. This work identified that a more significant and costly improvement was needed than first anticipated. Next steps for any improvement of that intersection are still to be identified by NZTA.

There is also an investigation into how 15th Avenue / Turret Road and Welcome Bay Road can be improved. This is getting underway now. In the medium / longer term, NZTA have an investigation into how to improve SH29A.

Through the 2025/26 Annual Plan process, Council agreed to proceed with an inhouse investigation of access improvements for Ohauiti this coming year. It will focus on the option of connecting Rowesdale Drive to Pukemapu Road and on to Oropi Road as a potential medium to long-term opportunity. The project will also involve engaging with NZTA on the prospect of getting improvements to SH29A back on the agenda, and with the Ministry of Education on the need for local schooling options.

More housing and development is an issue that is happening across Tauranga in both newer greenfield areas and through intensification in more established suburbs. Structure planning processes identify roading needs and these considered through Annual Plan and Long-term Plan processes and delivered in a staged manner over time as growth proceeds.

The land in question at Rowesdale Drive has been zoned Residential and part of the Ohauiti Structure Plan since the 1990’s.

Access to the site from the west via Oropi Road (known as Option 2) was investigated. However, this option needs to cross a river, multiple-owned Māori land and was identified as having greater social, cultural, geotechnical, infrastructure and environmental impacts than a number of other options including the preferred via Rowesdale Drive. These factors contributed to an Oropi Road connection not being preferred.

The land in question was structure planned and zoned for residential development in the 1990’s as part of the process that rezoned Rowesdale for development and a number of other subdivisions. The transport planning work never had a connection shown to Pukemapu Road and envisaged connection would occur into the local Ohauiti street network.

This is subject to several factors but possibly within the next 1-2 years.

The cost of connecting to Pukemapu Road would not enable the development to proceed if it had to be funded by a developer given the scale of the development.

Recent traffic counts from the following locations and dates are below:

BOPRC has a limited role in transport planning focused on public transport. TCC made decisions through the recent Annual Plan process to relook at alternative transport connections out of Ohauiti – focused on the possibility of connecting Rowesdale Drive to Pukemapu Road and Oropi Road.

The latest and most up-to-date info will be used in our access study. This will include traffic flow and movements resulting from the completion of Three Creeks and the continuing development of McFetridge. This work will be undertaken over the next 12 months.