Catherine Stewart Tauranga City Councillor

Elected members were invited to inspect the Tauranga Eastern Link last week. This will be the largest state highway project ever built in the Bay of Plenty.

The project is progressing ahead of schedule and is due to be opened in July/August 2015. The total budget is expected to be about $400 million.

Elected members were advised that project comprises about 160,000 tonnes of asphalt, 630,000m2 of road pavement, with about $2.5m spent on dust control.

And roughly 200,000 plants are in the ground already with another 100,000 programmed to be planted prior to opening later this year.

The new TEL should save arbout 12 minutes driving time. Tolls will be set at $2 per light vehicle and $5 per heavy vehicle.

People can sign up for a tolling account from the middle of July.

For further information, see www.nzta.govt.nz/tel