‘Frustrating’ Te Puna detour on hold

Road works taking place on State Highway 2, at Te Puna. Photo: NZTA Waikato/BOP.

The Te Puna detour which saw hundreds of motorists voice their frustration on social media has been put on hold.

The NZT Transport Agency was trialling the detour around Te Puna yesterday.

One motorists who called SunLive says it took his wife 30-40 minutes just to go down Snodgrass Road.

'It was absolute madness. From what I saw, there was no need for a detour as they [contractors] weren't even working on the roundabout.

'There was no signage to say where the detour was and people were getting turned around as roads in the area were closed due to slips. It was a shambles.”

Another Western Bay resident says it took his wife a two hour round trip from Omokoroa to Te Puna, just to trip their daughter off at daycare.

An NZTA spokesperson says they've been monitoring the trial and can see it has caused significant delays for some road users.

'It will be placed on hold until further notice, while we review why these delays occurred and the current detour plan.

'We'd like to thank the public for their feedback and apologise for the frustrations the detour has caused.

'We will continue to look at all available options to ensure the work at Te Puna is completed in the shortest time possible and with the least amount of inconvenience to road users.”

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14 comments

No surprises there

Posted on 20-04-2017 07:58 | By triplediamond

It is very clear that the decision makers for these detours have little or no experience and do not take the consequences of their decisions into account.Just look at the Bethlehem Town Centre debacle. During busy times it simply does not work safely!Wake up!


Utter Crap!!

Posted on 20-04-2017 09:46 | By The Hobbit

[They] must have known there would be mayhem by creating a detour.................surely. I knew it would and I'm not in the road construction industry ... unlike the people who are managing/involved in this shambles of a project. I just wonder when they'll remove the roundabout to help traffic flow in years to come. The roundabout at Bethlehem Z station has caused misery during rush hour since it was installed - Te Puna is just going to be another bottle neck. This roundabout should never have been approved and seems to be a lot of work and disruption just because of a few idiots who couldn't cross the intersection safely. The next bottle neck will be a reduction in speed limit to 50 and I bet you the zone for this will be extended beyond the existing 60 zone!!!


night work

Posted on 20-04-2017 09:59 | By Ness

Why aren't they doing this at night when the road is quite, it's kiwifruit season so there's more trucks and general traffic during the day, it's not rocket science


No surprise

Posted on 20-04-2017 11:02 | By simple.really

Just drove through Te Puna.. 2 site managers smoking watching 1 man in a grader. Well done Downer ! How about we get some real work done while the weather is effect? Or are you waiting for another storm to blame the delays on??? Would love to read a reply from Downer ...


Bureaubunglers

Posted on 20-04-2017 11:04 | By Kaimai

Funny how these bureaubunglers can hide - "An NZTA spokesperson". Be good to know who the people are that that make these bungling decisions, who was on the committee, who the chairperson of the committee was.


Short term pain for long term gain.

Posted on 20-04-2017 11:47 | By dbunk

There will be complaints regardless, remember everyone who grizzled with the delays on the TEL project then sung its praises when complete. There will always be delays working on a State Highway, embrace it and remember what the delay is for, small term pain for long term gain. Get out of bed earlier in the morning, pack a cup of coffee with you and embrace the fact we have major roading developments in our area, these are not just meaningless roadworks, this is being done to ultimately make your trip faster and safer.


Indifferent incompetence by NZTA

Posted on 20-04-2017 12:56 | By Rimu137

NZTA obviously did not take a look at Station Rd to see it was shut from slips. Keep up the coverage Sun Live, this is a burning issue for businesses and western Bay communities north of Tga - for too long we have all been treated with indifferent incompetence by NZTA, they need to have the heat kept on them!


No brain !

Posted on 20-04-2017 13:36 | By comfortablynumb

It's a stupid place for a roundabout anyway with a hill on the Tauranga side of it. This means large trucks will have to slow or stop to enter the roundabout by BP then exit it to make a slow climb up the hill towards town. More chaos on our roads to come


AS I SAID

Posted on 20-04-2017 13:40 | By old trucker

could have saved $millions of $$$$$ by putting in a 50 k sign at each end,Hey By simple really ,you know it takes 2 so called site B---s to watch a grader, it really does help to make the job Quicker,YEAH RIGHT) china workforce would have finised this by now, (and all done with Shovels etc),my thoughts only,CANNOT RUSH these things as it has to spin out,my thoughts only,Sunlive is No1, Thankyou,10-4 out.


dragging the chain

Posted on 20-04-2017 13:52 | By mal thomson

these roadworks have been ongoing for months now.having spent 5 years living in brisbane and seeing changes and improvements that were achieved in short time frames,it is frustrating to be delayed on a daily basis by such a small project.To my may of thinking a lot more could be achieved at night when traffic volumes are a lot less.


NZTA detect significant delays

Posted on 20-04-2017 20:12 | By sh2 commuter

Ahhhhhhhhhh - the problems is solved. The astute "engineers" at NZTA have monitored significant delays at last. There have been significant queues since just after Christmas when they started work on SH2. Are they slow, unobservant or incompetent?


Come on bdunk - get real

Posted on 20-04-2017 20:14 | By stokey

You must either be one of the workers sitting on the verge having a smoke, a planner with Downers or an ostrich living in Minden? Get real. This project has been a shambles from its inception and whilst you might be happy sitting in your car for 2 hours with a flask of coffee, some of us have hospital appointments, children to drop off and work to do. Any more of this nonsense and Downers will see what real anger and frustration is!


Another perfect day

Posted on 21-04-2017 10:54 | By simple.really

for working on this piece of roaring.. .and not a single worker in sight! Please explain Downer??!! Should have been finished weeks ago.


@Stokey

Posted on 24-04-2017 08:10 | By dbunk

I'll say it again - Get out of bed earlier in the morning, pack a cup of coffee with you and embrace the fact we have major roading developments in our area, these are not just meaningless roadworks, this is being done to ultimately make your trip faster and safer.


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