A pair of recently-completed tsunami evacuations routes are ranking Mount Maunganui and Papamoa among New Zealand's most resilient coastal communities.

That's the view of ward councillor Steve Morris, who states: 'It's been a long time coming.”

Councillor Steve Morris on one of the recently-completed tsunami escape routes. Photo: Supplied.

Steve is of the opinion that the previous council did not take residents' wishes for evacuation routes as seriously as they should.

'I made a promise during the election that I would fight for proper evacuation routes throughout the Mount and Papamoa,” he explains, 'and I am proud to say that, thanks to the receptiveness of my colleagues, this council is getting on with the job.”

Tauranga City Council is spending $3.44m on evacuation routes over the next ten years, with $2.25m being spent over the next three.

This will pay for evacuation direction signs, new pathways, reliable crossings over the Wairakei stream every 400m and the removal of current access-way barriers.

Two evacuation mounds are to be built in Papamoa East by 2018 and 2019 in addition to the $20m project to provide a second exit road for Papamoa East at Te Okuroa Drive.

Three more Papamoa tsunami escape bridges are also planned for construction in the next financial year.

'Even though the likelihood of these routes having to be used in an emergency in our lifetime is very small, there is no excuse for not planning for our residents' safety” says Steve.

'In the meantime, the routes provide better walkways and cycleways for people to enjoy.”

Now that the promised evacuation routes are underway, Steve is keen to progress to the next step – an alerting system.

'Within the next few months I will be proposing a notice of motion that council consider a suitable alerting system,” he adds.

'This will be more difficult to achieve given certain bureaucratic impediments in Wellington, but I'm happy to lead the charge again.”

For more information on tsunami evacuation, click here.