A new cycleway is under construction to wind beneath Wairoa Bridge on State Highway 2. Western Bay of Plenty motorists are furious it's being put in place – and some cyclists admit they won't even use it.

Works began this month to complete the last 800m of the Ōmokoroa to Tauranga cycleway, creating a designated space for cycling along SH2 between the Wairoa Bridge and Bethlehem.

Off-road construction works are creating an underpass from the Wairoa River clip-on bridge that will lead to an on-road, two-way cycleway that crosses at Taniwha Place and continues along SH2 to a signalised crossing connecting to Carmichael Rd.

Frustrations and use

Motorist Cheryl Southorn, who travels into Tauranga from Whakamārama, is frustrated the project is causing traffic delays and calls the cycleway 'stupid”.

'We're going to get held up again. Traffic is going to bank up, and that's providing people do use it.

'How many people are going to actually use it?” asks Cheryl. 'You ask anybody on that road – you see very few cyclists at all and to put that loop, then put them under the bridge, and up the other side is just absolutely ridiculous.” Tauranga City Council director of transport Brendan Bisley says council has 'no reservations about the impact of the cycleway design on traffic flow for motorists”. 'The most important factor in council decision-making is safety for all road users. The signalised pedestrian crossing [which cyclists will use] was always intended to be put in place to allow for increased pedestrian flow at the northern end of Bethlehem and this crossing will have no additional impact on traffic flow than the other two signalised crossings on this stretch of State Highway.”

Cyclist and Bike Tauranga founder Shane Plummer says the cycleway will provide the only safe way to get to the other side of the Wairoa Bridge.

However he admits fast-commuting cyclists will still go over Wairoa Bridge and avoid the cycleway underpass to save time. 'If I was mountain biking , I'd hit the pedestrian crossing [off Carmichael Rd] then go over the bridge before the cars will catch me…so a lot of people will just go over the bridge who are the fast, more confident riders and a lot of retirees ripping around on 30km/h E-Bikes.”

Safety concerns

Shane says the cycleway design 'is what it is”. 'There's a lot of challenges around it and it's not 100 per cent practical. Some of the plans have got huge safety risks that are not being addressed but that's more of the technical side.”

For the cycleway section beneath the bridge, Shane says: 'They're going to have problems with the sharp hairpins going underneath the bridge at 90 degrees. From the E-Bikes' perspective ripping down there, they're going to have to be very, very careful because collisions can and will most likely happen doing a hairpin U-turn”.

The Sun asked TCC if it thinks this project is the safest design for cyclists. 'Yes, this is the safest design considering the limitations of available space and the fact that, at peak times, there are over 2000 vehicles per hour using this stretch of road,” says Brendan.

'Going up SH2 on the northern side of the road has more hazards for cyclists and vehicles due to width constraints to accommodate a cycleway and visibility issues than the Taniwha Rd side.”

Completion of roadworks will see the speed limit in this area reduce. 'The speed reduction from 80km/hr to 50km/hr heading into the city will now occur on the bridge instead of 500 metres up the hill towards Bethlehem – signalling this is no longer a stretch of ‘country road' but a busy urban environment,” says Brendan.

Cheryl has no objection to this 'because I actually feel sorry for the people in Taniwha Place trying to get in and out of there in peak-hour traffic”.

Yet she feels there's a lack of democracy surrounding this project. 'You feel as though there's all this push for cyclists and you know you look at Cameron Rd, it's the same thing, and it's almost like its bureaucratic. They are trying to force you to either use public transport or ride a bike.”