Papamoa Eastern Interchange Bridge & Tsunami Evacuation Route

Quote from a letter to Tauranga City Council by the Alliance. October 2022

“Putting aside the primary function of the bridge which is to feed traffic to/from the expressway, the bridge should also be a tsunami evacuation option for the people at the Sands development and living locally to the Sands.  This escape route needs to connect with Bell Rd to allow rapid evacuation on foot and by bicycle to places further inland.  This is the most direct route.  (All other roads run parallel to the coast).

Being cognisant of the many legs of the multimodal transport solution and the lack of public transport connectivity between Papamoa East and Te Puke, a further use for this bridge that needs to be considered is for it, to be part of the direct bus connection route with Te Puke.

The pedestrian/ cycle way paths on the bridge can be shared with buses and emergency vehicles. This would be only 1 lane wide and bollard controlled to only allow permitted vehicles to use. And with a link to Bell Rd.

It may be argued that these additional considerations have arrived too late, however we do not think so and history tells us that it definitely advantageous to pause the planning in order to get it right.  This bridge crossing over the expressway needs to be future proofed and provide a tsunami evacuation function, be a bike/pedestrian to Bell Rd and bus pathway between Te Puke and Papamoa East.  It may be that all this requires an additional bridge.  All this needs to be urgently considered now.”

The two plans to the left are the Phase 1 base plan by TCC showing connections from Sands area to the TEL. The first plan shows the addtion of the pedestrian/cycle/bus link across the TEL and onwards to Bell Rd. This is also the primary Tsunami Evacuation path from the Sands area to higher ground.