First, there was no median barrier on Welcome Bay Road, then there was – at a cost of $64,000. Then it was ripped up and needs reworking all over again, for an additional $12,000.

That's the story of the traffic median strip outside Welcome Bay School this week.

The median barrier on Welcome Bay Road has been removed, and is now awaiting reconstruction. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

Now, with the back-to-school deadline of February 2 looming large, the pressure is on to fix the mistake before road-working machinery has to share the space with school traffic.

The barrier was put installed as a safety measure for shool traffic, but the designers forgot about the need for relevant school car parking - as did the unnamed council officials who checked and approved the design.

On top of the initial $64,000 outlay, the additional work adds another $12,000 to the overall cost, says Tauranga City Council communication advisor Marcel Currin.

'The original brief was correct,” he says, 'but the car parking facility was overlooked in the design and its subsequent approval, so council is negotiating with the consultant to share the additional costs.”

However, locals have had front-row seats to the debacle, and have been watching the show unfold for two weeks now.

And one neighbour has labelled the entire episode a 'waste of money”.

Welcome Bay resident Lorraine, who does not want her surname published, says: 'They had made the barrier so wide where the white line was to pull in and park that I was struggling to get through in a Toyota Echo.

'It was a beautiful job. Beautiful concrete down both sides with this bright terracotta in the middle - very ultra-modern and very nicely done. Then to see this jack hammer digging it all up again - we were just beside ourselves.

'What a waste of money.

'They have spent two weeks there. Surely anybody in their mind would see that not only could you not get a car through, but how are they going to get the buses through? The great big mobile library bus parks there for a start.

'I just can't believe that everywhere I go now there are these great big concrete monstrosities. In 17th Avenue they have put in a roundabout.

'They have no consideration for buses or people. Is transport and traffic so bad in Tauranga that they have to put all these concrete jungles in at every cross road?”