A lot of people from Mount Maunganui were late for work in Tauranga on Monday as they grappled with another new road layout over the harbour bridge.
The Dive Crescent roundabout exit is now closed with traffic diverted to Chapel Street and Elizabeth Street until December 18.

Kevin Reid.

'I think the big problem for traffic coming from the Mount is they are all trying to turn off at Chapel Street,” says project manager Kevin Reid. 'They are not realising they can stay on the flyover to Elizabeth St.
'There are still two lanes, but everyone is in the left lane. A bit further on some of them are maybe realising they could have carried on and pull out.
'Once people get the hang of that and realise Elizabeth Street is an alternative access to the CBD it should spread out a bit more.”

He thinks better signage might help. He expects the traffic will take a few days to settle down and he's thankful there was good weather today. It would have been worse if it was raining.
The new road layout will remain until the Dive Crescent ramp is reopened when the refurbishment of the old bridge is completed. At this stage, Kevin's hoping that will be December 18.
'An early Christmas present for the city,” says Kevin.
The changeover took 12 hours to achieve with the contractors Fletcher Challenge staff working from 5pm Sunday until 4am today to make it happen.
This morning most of the pedestrians round the intersections under the flyover were wearing high visibility vests and helmets.
'We've got people out monitoring all the intersections at the moment to see how they are working,” says Kevin.
'We probably won't be making major changes for a few days.”