P\u0101p\u0101moa<\/a> Beach Rd because it\u2019s got that 3.5m bank across the road, which just amplifies the noise, and it shoots it right into our front yards.\u201d<\/p>\nUsing a decibel app on his phone, Neale said he recorded road noise at 87dB outside his home.<\/p>\n
Closer to the Domain Rd intersection, where the road was asphalt, the noise level was 20dB lower, he said.<\/p>\n
The Hearing Health Foundation\u2019s website says sounds above 70dB can damage hearing over time.<\/p>\n
Neale said nothing had been done since April and the council had been \u201cfobbing me off\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Residents]()
Residents want P\u0101p\u0101moa Beach Rd asphalted to reduce road noise. Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n
He has lived in his home for 10 years and had campaigned for improvements for two years.<\/p>\n
Neale said he had spent $60,000 on double-glazing his windows and recladding his home to try to reduce noise.<\/p>\n
He was also looking at building an acoustic fence that would cost about $50,000, but was unsure if it would make a difference.<\/p>\n
Neale said he could not sit on his deck during peak traffic and wore earplugs to work outside because of the noise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat constant noise just makes you so angry. It\u2019s not good for your health, putting up with that sort of stress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coetzee agreed that asphalt was needed to reduce the noise.<\/p>\n
![\"P\u0101p\u0101moa]()
P\u0101p\u0101moa is Tauranga’s largest suburb. Photo \/ George Novak <\/p>\n
She also suggested adding traffic lights to the Domain Rd roundabout to break up the traffic and hopefully reduce the noise.<\/p>\n
Council head of transport Mike Seabourne said a recent traffic count for that section of P\u0101p\u0101moa Beach Rd was 9300 vehicles per day.<\/p>\n
The road surface along that stretch was in good operable condition, and the council did not have plans to replace it, he said.<\/p>\n
If the council were to asphalt the road between Domain Rd and Stella Place, where the bank ended, the footpath would also need to be replaced, Seabourne said.<\/p>\n
The cost of asphalt and a new footpath would be $2.04m, which was \u201csignificantly more\u201d than chipseal, he said. The breakdown was $1.58m for the replacement pavement and $387,000 for asphalt.<\/p>\n
Asphalt cost about five times that of chipseal, so it was reserved for use on the most highly trafficked roads, Seabourne said.<\/p>\n
The council also needed to comply with NZ Transport Agency policy to qualify for a subsidy toward resealing, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNZTA require that the designs for pavement and surfacing be fit for purpose and provide value for money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although asphalt surfaces were desirable, the council and NZTA prioritised road expenditure where it was needed most and offered the most cost-effective solutions to keep the road network safe, operable and provide value for money to ratepayers and taxpayers, Seabourne said.<\/p>\n
Council head of spaces and places Alison Law said the proposal to plant the bank between Domain Rd and Stella Place was investigated but had been rejected as not practical.<\/p>\n
\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coetzee has lived there for a year and said the road noise was \u201cabsolutely crazy\u201d. Her windows were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7972,111,43,139,35921,69,23282,2642,530,5659,1227,3946,56166],"class_list":{"0":"post-70717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-beach","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-noise","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-ppmoa","15":"tag-rd","16":"tag-residents","17":"tag-say","18":"tag-tauranga","19":"tag-traffic","20":"tag-unbearable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70717","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=70717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}