Te Puna residents are getting fed up with the road works on State Highway 2 that have dragged on and are disrupting life on and off the highway.

Dawn Watson has had enough of road works in Te Puna.

Traffic is being diverted past the road works onto what residents say are rural back roads totally unsuited to the heavy trucks and trailers.

Te Puna resident Dawn Watson says the recent crash of an oil tanker on the diversion is an example.

'What I'm concerned about is all the trucks,” says Dawn.

'It's the middle of the kiwifruit season – there are kiwifruit trucks, logging trucks, rubbish trucks that are going down Te Puna Road and Te Puna Station Road.

'The turn into Te Puna Station Road is totally unsuited to the large trucks. At the bottom is where the oil tanker tipped over.

'It's a hellish road for them to have to turn into.

'What really rattles me is the main road is closed to traffic for six hours a day, when it could be eight and all they have working there is one machine and three men.”

The owner of the Paradiso Cafe on the corner of the highway and Clarke Road has also had enough of road works being dragged out.

Duncan Place took over the business on May 18 only to discover nobody was passing south on the highway.

'It has been a constant fight to keep trade here,” says Duncan.

'All the businesses here have been having the same situation – it is a unique small retail market come village, the coffee shop of the hub.

'Compared with the figures when the road works weren't on, we're probably about 30-40 per cent down on our sales.

'It's dramatic to take over and find you have got that problem on your plate immediately.”

He's been told the road works will last 8-10 weeks, depending on the weather, but he also has issues with the apparent lack of pace.

The cones go out on the highway at 9-9.30am, he says, and at the other end of the day they come off at 4-4.30pm.

The cones direct traffic down the diversion. Anybody heading south will not even know Paradiso is there says Duncan.

'It's devastating,” says Duncan.

'We are lucky we have a lot of regulars who have made the effort.

"We have put signs up round the back road just to point people down the cutting to the village and our business.”

The work was originally projected to last three to six weeks, says Duncan.

An NZ Transport Agency spokesperson promised a reply to the locals' concerns, but had not replied this morning.