The $1.6 million upgrade to the intersection of 11^th Avenue and Cameron Road is expected to be finished on Friday – a week ahead of schedule and on budget.

Tauranga City Council transportation operations manager Martin Parkes says the council is 'very pleased” with this result for the project started in April.

Works at the intersection of Cameron Road and 11^th Avenue.

People can expect a new road layout with additional cycle lanes and the previously banned right hand turn from 11^th Avenue onto Cameron Road will remain.

'We re-instated that manoeuvre five months ago just to try and see whether it would have any impact on the efficiency of the intersection as we noticed people were actually doing that anyway.

'Everything has seemed to be okay, so that will now be part of the permanent layout.”

Amongst the new features is an advanced box waiting area for cyclists.

'Drivers will need to be aware of the new cycle lanes and not to stray into those areas, as they are for cyclists.”

Also installed are additional pedestrian facilities featuring two-staged crossings from Carpet Court to McDonalds and from Kiwi Bank to the Shell service station.

These are due to be switched on and commissioned on Friday.

'Pedestrians will need to be aware that the set up is different.

'Pedestrians will need to push the button, cross to the middle and push another button to complete the crossing.”

There are additional islands on 11^th Avenue near the St John and Christopher Street intersection to discourage right hand turns out of those two side roads.

'The right hand manoeuvres were causing a lot of the crashes in that area.”

Martin says the four sets of traffic lights at the intersection have all been upgraded with a new controller so the lights can work more efficiently.