The final bridge in a $262 million highway project six years and more than 1.3 million staff hours in the making is about to be used by motorists for the first time.
The Bayfair flyover on State Highway 2 in Mount Maunganui is expected to open this month, with work on the wider Bay Link - one of the Bay of Plenty’s largest roading projects, used by 38,000 people a day - to finish by the end of the year. Resident and business organisations are pleased to see the project reach this stage “at last”, but did not expect it to be a “silver bullet” for congestion on the fast-growing city’s roading network.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency announced yesterday the last of three Bay Link bridges was scheduled to open this month. The agency told the Bay of Plenty Times it expected to confirm a date later this week.
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In a media statement, the agency said the Bayfair flyover will open in a temporary configuration and take traffic over the Bayfair roundabout, separating local and state highway traffic. The traffic switch and work leading up to it were weather-dependent.
The flyover is one of the last significant pieces of infrastructure to be opened as part of the Baypark to Bayfair project, also known as Bay Link or B2B, which has built flyovers bypassing two busy roundabouts.
In late 2014, the transport agency board approved $120m for the project. Construction started in 2017 and was then expected to be completed in late 2020.
However, Waka Kotahi said enhancements to pedestrian and cycling modes and “unforeseen” ground conditions led to scope, cost and time impacts, and in 2021, it pushed the completion date out to late 2023, and the total project cost to $262m.
Waka Kotahi Bay of Plenty regional manager of maintenance and operations, Rob Campbell, said in yesterday’s statement he was looking forward to the flyover opening.
“This long-awaited, last major piece of infrastructure as part of the Bay Link project is a huge milestone for everyone.”
Campbell said while a lot of “carefully sequenced work” needed to happen before its opening date, people should plan their journeys ahead of the upcoming switch.
“Opening the flyover to traffic means significant changes for everyone and will require drivers to make an early selection of the route they will take, depending on their destination.”
Campbell said the flyover was expected to reduce traffic volumes around the Bayfair roundabout, so the final phase of road reconstruction works at the roundabout can begin. This involved reconstructing the ground-level roads leading into and away from the Bayfair roundabout to bring them up to standard. This will be completed in stages, each requiring new, temporary traffic layouts.
Work was continuing at both ends of the project, including building a bigger, signalised Bayfair roundabout, the remaining SH29A/SH2 Te Maunga interchange off-ramp, Truman Lane, walking and cycling connections, as well as final works on the Bayfair underpass.
Existing roads would be replaced to support heavier and more vehicles. The final layer of road surface would be applied once most of the works were done, Campbell said.
