Road works responsible for major traffic congestion along Papamoa Beach Rd during the last two months are almost complete, with the tail end of work scheduled outside of peak hours.

Traffic is easing along Papamoa Beach Rd, with construction of a roundabout at Sandhurst Drive almost complete.

Frustrated Papamoa residents have battled 'crawling” traffic due to construction of a roundabout at the intersection with Sandhurst Drive.

The situation was compounded by the increased number of motorists using Papamoa Beach Rd during construction of the Tauranga Eastern Link.

Average weekday traffic counts supplied by Tauranga City Council show an extra 1100 vehicles are using the road each day, compared to one year earlier. The count was taken at road's intersection with Parton Rd.

The congestion caused particular concern for Mount Maunganui College Year 13 student Brandon, who was getting to school late on a near daily basis.

Brandon is one of many students catching the bus to school and says the traffic caused them to be consistently between 10-30 minutes late.

'At the worst point I arrived at school at 9.45am; one hour after school is supposed to start, completely missing my first lesson on the day.

'I'm more concerned about the younger students, I know at Year 13 it's not as big an issue for us missing half a lesson, but for them it's a lot because they're still quite young.”

Brandon catches the bus at 8.15am and should arrive at 8.30am.

'When they started building the roundabout, it went to custard straight away. The traffic issues have always been somewhat bad, but when the construction started it became terrible.”

Brandon says his school attendance record was being jeopardised, but the issue is being rectified by his Year 13 dean.

'I understand it's necessary, they need to build the road because it's going to link to the TEL. 'I see the long-term effects will benefit it, but it's affecting schooling, even just a simple apology to the local schools would be nice.”

Traffic banked up along Papamoa Beach road.

Mount College deputy principal Ady van der Beek says road works are an ongoing issue in causing student lateness.

He says the school is aware of the attendance issues caused by the roundabout construction and staff are taking steps to improve the situation.

'I have been in touch with the roading people on-site and discussed the issue. They say they're obliged to put a 30km sign up with any works; and with the increased number of people travelling on the road, 30km can quickly turn to 5km.”

He says the issue is of concern and he's meeting with the bus company to seek their advice.

'I want to listen to their take, as they are on the road. If they come up with any suggestions that's fine; just to provide the best service we can for our students.”

The works have also caused issues for residents driving to work.

Gerald Greig has been frustrated by the lack of communication about when the works are due for completion.

He has battled 'ridiculous” and 'bottlenecked” traffic for the last two months and says it's made him late for work on many occasions.

'The thing is you never know [how bad it's going to be]. I'm going to have to start leaving at 7.30am just to get to work on time.”

He is also concerned by the number of people now using scooters along the road.

'How many scooters I see nearly getting hit; it's really dangerous.”

TCC communications manager Frank Begley confirms the bulk of the work at Sandhurst Drive is now complete.

'There will still be some finishing up jobs to do [line marking, etc], much of which will happen outside peak traffic hours. The stuff that affects traffic is now done.”