Cyclists will soon be able to bike between Ōmokoroa to Tauranga.

The Western Bay of Plenty District Council has given the go ahead for the construction of a $5.2 million cycleway on the Wairoa River bridge crossing.

Council's Group Manager Infrastructure Services, Gary Allis, says it's the final connection point into Tauranga City and gives cyclists safe access across the bridge away from traffic.

'State Highway 2 is a busy road with more than 30,000 vehicles per day on this section.

'It's currently an unattractive and risky route for cyclists.”

'The bridge is 177m long plus approaches, has a clear width between handrails of 2.15m and will span the Wairoa River as a clip-on to the existing bridge.

'The engineering has been future-proofed in the event a similar clip-on is put on the other side of the bridge at a later date.

'The bridge clip-on will be in conjunction with work on State Highway 2 from the bridge to Carmichael Road.

'That includes a 3.0m wide concrete cycle/walking trail beside the road, kerb and channel and major road reconstruction.

'These two sections will be the final part of the Omokoroa to Tauranga cycle trail to be constructed with completion around the end of the year.

'The successful contractor will be announced shortly.”

Gary says the clip-on was decided after it became clear their original plan of building a separate bridge to the existing Wairoa Bridge would be too costly.

The original budget for that was $6.5m, but the final estimate was over $15m.

The total cost of the Omokoroa to Tauranga cycleway project is estimate around $13.4M.

Gary says it's a 19km cycleway expected to attract around 200 commuter cyclists a day.