Subscribe to RSSTolls Confirmed For Tauranga
Tauranga Eastern Link will definitely be tolled, allowing construction to begin on the road early next year – seven years earlier than would otherwise be the case.
The Tauranga Eastern Link is a 23km four lane highway from Te Maunga to Paengaroa that bypasses Te Puke.
The road is estimated to cost up to $567 million in 2015 dollars. While most of the money will come from the National Land Transport Fund, $137 million will be raised through borrowing and repaid through tolling.
Transport minister Steven Joyce, confirming the decision said that Cabinet has agreed to loan NZTA the remaining funding required to allow construction to begin in 2011. This loan will be repaid through tolling the road.
Tolls are proposed to be no more than $2 per trip for cars and motorcycles and no more than $5 for heavy vehicles. It is estimated that all borrowing will be repaid within a toll operating period of 35 years, after which tolls will be removed.
The existing State highway 2 route through Te Puke will remain as a free alternative route once the Tauranga Eastern Link is completed.
The four-lane road will run from Te Maunga (near Baypark Stadium) in Tauranga to the existing junction of State Highways 2 and 33 (the Rotorua and Whakatane highways) near Paengaroa. It will be made up 17km of new road and an upgrade of six kilometres of existing highway.
Tolls will apply to the section of new road from the Domain Road intersection to Paengaroa. A free-flow tolling system will be used to enable motorists to travel the 23km journey without having to stop or slow down to pay a toll.
5 Comments
I assume it will use the same tolling system as Orewa to Puhoi, I remember hearing that the more projects using it the more collection costs per trip are pushed down which is a good thing.
This sounds like an expressway (Limited Access Highway) rather than a motorway. If this is the case will it have a cycle lane like the Waikato Expressway?….and would there be tolls for bikes?
@Richard backgrounder is here http://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/tel/overview.html
Good stuff, Te Puke high street is a great area but let down by trucks. Any ideas if the proposed business park is to have a railway station?
@DanC if only. Rangiuru would be a great place for an inland port.
Then all the logging trucks could drop their logs here and not have to trudge through congested roads, including the road between Te Maunga and Mount Maunganui which will be even more congested as a result of this. That would only cost 1/10th of the cost of this project, but somehow that would be an unacceptable subsidy and disrupt the free market, hmmm…