Weather permitting, Tauranga City Council will be starting the construction process on the other side of Totara St on Friday, September 29, through until Wednesday, October 4.

Traffic will be reduced to one lane (open for travel between Mount Maunganui and Hewletts Rd).

Totara St will be closed to ALL traffic heading to Mount Maunganui from Hewletts Rd.

Traffic will be diverted along Newton Rd and bus lanes will be open for use to help ease congestion, says an update from Tauranga City Council.

"Given that Totara St is a such critical route to the Port of Tauranga and many other commercial and recreational destinations, any works in this area are challenging and may cause delays.

"Due to the nature of the disruption, we have chosen to do this work during the school holidays when there’s less traffic on the roads.

"We endeavour to manage this with traffic management and detours in place.

"Because the construction process requires continuous work through two night and day shifts, it needs to be done over a weekend."

Council says fine weather is also essential for the new road surface to cure and harden, which takes up to three days.

"The design life for concrete is 40 years against a conventional base course and asphalt life of 25 years.

"We have held off road reconstruction for several years while other works in the general area were underway, however we cannot delay work any further as sections of the road in this vicinity have reached the end of life.

"We recommend allowing extra time for your travel as delays are expected. We acknowledge community frustration with the amount of congestion across the network currently and appreciate your patience."