Port of Tauranga pushes for Totara St to be made a state highway

By: Samantha MotionMultimedia journalistsamantha.motion@nzme.co.nz

Two-lane Totara St is one of Tauranga’s busiest thoroughfares, routinely hosting a crawling queue of traffic heading between the CBD and Mount Maunganui, both inside and outside of peak hours. It has the Mount Maunganui side of the Port of Tauranga’s mammoth operations spewing trucks from one side, and customers visiting the string of small businesses on the other. Tauranga City Council has the stretch in its sights for improvements, but as with so many of the roading projects on its books, funding, as well as timing, is a problem. Now Tauranga’s biggest ratepayer has an idea to get it moving.

Tauranga’s biggest ratepayer is pushing for Totara St to be designated a state highway – and not for the first time.

Transit authorities rejected a redesignation request in 2001 but Mark Cairns, chief executive of the Port of Tauranga, says growth has changed the situation and Tauranga City Council should try again.

Cairns presented to the council on Tuesday, saying the council-owned road met three of the six criteria for a state highway designation – enough for it to be considered.

By his research, it met the thresholds for truck movements, city population and port freight.

“I can’t see how the New Zealand Transport Agency can not designate it a State Highway.”

The port, worth $4.2 billion, is spread across 190 hectares split between Sulphur Point and Mount Maunganui.

Cairns said that while Sulphur Point had State Highway 2 access, Mount Maunganui – on its own one of the largest ports in New Zealand – had no state highway connection.

Totara St desperately needed improvements for safety and to tackle congestion, potentially including four-laning, he said.

The intersection of Totara St with Hewletts Rd/State Highway 2 especially needed addressing, he said.

That intersection was highlighted in the Bay of Plenty Times Gridlock series as one of the city’s busiest with 398,552 weekly vehicle movements – up almost 50 per cent since 2013.

Cairns blamed population growth for the congestion, saying most of the port’s freight growth in the past five years was carried on rail and by ship.

He was confident that, as a state highway, the road would meet the cost-benefit threshold for national land transport funding.

As the local roading authority, the council needed to push for a new designation, he said.

Christine Jones, the council’s general manager of strategy and growth, said Transport Minister Phil Twyford had made it clear the way to progress a new designation was through the Urban Form and Transport Initiative.

The initiative, a partnership between the agency and the Western Bay sub-regions’ three councils, aimed to produce a business case to secure long-term Government transport funding – similar to Let’s Get Wellington Moving.

The council agreed on Tuesday to refer the port’s proposal to the initiative, a path Cairns feared would cause a delay.

The council would also look into the issue as part of its own work on the Totara St/Hull Rd/Hewletts Rd corridor.

Mayor Greg Brownless said Totara St was part of “arguably the most important roading network in the country” because it provided access to the port – the largest in New Zealand and a significant contributor to both the regional and national economies.

A 2016 economic report on the port showed it accounted for 43 per cent of the Bay of Plenty’s GDP.

Cairns told the Bay of Plenty Times the port paid $1.6m in rates and $32m in corporate tax a year and expected some of those taxes would go on roads.

The NZ Transport Agency was contacted for this story but was not able to provide comment in time for the deadline.

Owners of other businesses on Totara St told the Bay of Plenty Times congestion on the street was an issue, though it impacted some more than others.

Some were worried four-laning might mean they would lose parking spaces, with that also being a concern with the council’s plan for a cycle lane on Totara St.

Barry Morris, owner of Lion Motors, said Totara St was “definitely a busy road” but that had its benefits.

“We’re a car yard so it’s good for us when people go slow because they get a good chance to look at the cars on the lot.”

Source : https://www.nzherald.co.nz/front-page-top-stories/news/article.cfm?c_id=698&objectid=12252375