Have you ever complained until you were blue in the face with absolutely zero resolution? Carmen Hutcheson knows how you feel.

The Papamoa woman felt like she was swimming upstream after complaining several times to the Tauranga City Council about trucks cutting the corner and driving up on the footpath at the roundabout at Golden Sands Drive and Papamoa Rd.

After encountering another truck cutting the corner at the roundabout early last week, Carmen took to Facebook to vent her frustrations and to warn others in the area to be on the lookout when walking near the roundabout.

'It's is the third time I have encountered a truck coming up on the footpath! We have notified the council several times, they did adjust the roundabout but it hasn't solved this safety issue. Only a matter of time before a pedestrian death!” reads Carmen's Facebook post.

'One day while on my bike I had to stop and move into the centre of the roundabout while the truck manoeuvred forward and back to get around into Golden Sands. Yep, must be very alert there.”

Her concerns were forwarded to TCC councillor Leanne Brown and down the chain it went to council's transportation manager Martin Parkes, who travelled to the scene to expect the roundabout.

A couple of days later Martin and his team had come up with a solution.

On Tuesday council contractors began work at the roundabout, which includes widening the footpath by 1m and installing safe hit posts at the apex of the roundabout's corner.

'It's awesome that something's been done. Normally, you see things and complain about them but nothing happens,” says Carmen.

'Last week's incident was the last straw for me and I would have felt really bad if someone had been hit and I'd done nothing about it.”

Martin anticipates the work should be completed within the next couple of weeks.

He says council have been aware of the issue for several months and it was believed the problem had been dealt with.

'When we first received complaints, about 18 months ago, we removed a central traffic island on Papamoa Beach Rd. This was undertaken to give truck drivers more room to manoeuvre when turning right out of Golden Sands Drive,” says Martin.

'As we know now, this didn't fully resolve the matter hence these further works being required.”

Martin says council takes matters of safety extremely seriously and they will be monitoring the situation once the works are completed.

TCC's solution to stopping trucks cutting the corner at the roundabout. Photo: Carmen Hutchenson.

As to why trucks are cutting the corner, Martin is at a loss as to why it is happening with the current layout of the roundabout providing enough room for trucks to manoeuvre within the road area.

'Standard road layout design guidance, including the design of roundabouts, requires roads of this type to take account of trucks.”

Carmen says it was typically truck and trailer units delivering building materials to the nearby subdivisions cutting the corner. Because her partner is a truck driver, who also delivers to the subdivisions, she certainly sympathises with what they had to deal with.

'When I've seen trucks cut the corner the drivers have a ‘did I just go over the curb?' look on their face, they've been just as shocked as I have to be honest.

'And they haven't got much choice because there's only one road to those subdivisions, so it's been a bit tough for them too I think.”