After seeing heavy traffic on Fraser St, Callister took what she thought would be the quicker route via Chadwick Rd, forgetting about the road closure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she had little choice but to wait and eat her takeaway dinner in the car while crawling home. <\/p>\n
\u201cI ate my fish and chips without tomato sauce in my car.\u201d <\/p>\n
Calliser said she arrived home about 6.15pm.<\/p>\n
She said she had seen social media posts warning about the roadworks but had not given them much thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d just been paid, so I thought I\u2019d go get dinner and treat myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Callister said she understood the repairs were necessary and urged other motorists to be patient.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also not nature\u2019s fault that it decided to slip.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re stuck in traffic like that, everybody\u2019s trying to get home. Letting another car in front of you isn\u2019t really going to put you 20 minutes behind. We\u2019re all in the same boat.\u201d <\/p>\n
Major works on \u014cropi Rd will include a 60m rock wall to secure the bank. Photo \/ Tauranga City Council<\/p>\n
Unify Body and Being owner Michelle Woolley said the slip repairs had added up to 45 minutes to some clients\u2019 travel times. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s made a massive difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cameron Rd business owner\u2019s studio is near Maleme St, and she said clients were arriving late and appointments were being pushed back.<\/p>\n
She said she had to put out a message to clients telling them to allow extra travel time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just talking to a client, and they said the traffic was completely stopped all the way from New World Gate Pa to mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woolley said the traffic issues caused her clients to arrive stressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sessions are first and foremost about helping people feel safe in their bodies \u2026 by calming the central nervous system, the body can shift out of a constant state of stress and into one of rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no point in getting frustrated. It\u2019s only going to make it worse for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contractors work on a 60m rock wall designed to stabilise the \u014cropi Rd slip. Photo \/ Zoe Blake<\/p>\n
Tauranga City Council transport system operations manager Shawn Geard said the congestion had been anticipated, although traffic had been backing up earlier in the day than expected. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had expected delays in the southbound direction [towards SH29A] at peak travel times worse than a bad weekday peak. <\/p>\n
\u201cTraffic data over the past few days broadly aligns with this assessment; however, it shows that the delays are occurring from around midday, not only at peak times.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said carrying out the work at night would significantly increase health and safety risks, while reopening both lanes during peak periods was not practical because setting up and packing down the site each day would leave limited working time.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce this phase of work is completed, our traffic management will only require nighttime lane closures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerard said the council had increased public communication before the project began, warning motorists and encouraging them to use alternative routes where possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand the traffic delays associated with this lane closure create significant disruption for the community and thank people for their understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both lanes on \u014cropi Rd will reopen from Friday to Sunday to ease travel over the Matariki long weekend before the southbound lane closure is reinstated until July 19.<\/p>\n
Gerard said the project remained on schedule.<\/p>\n
Zoe Blake is a multimedia journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After seeing heavy traffic on Fraser St, Callister took what she thought would be the quicker route via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,803,16492,3594,51720,111,43,139,69,2642,66952,209605,64572,1227,3946],"class_list":["post-518128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-as","tag-continue","tag-delays","tag-hit","tag-motorists","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rd","tag-repairs","tag-ropi","tag-slip","tag-tauranga","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}