Visitors to The Strand in Tauranga may have noticed there have been no trains passing through the central Tauranga waterfront this week.

A piece of railway track from Wharf Street through to Devonport Road has been lifted out with workers busy each day in the rail corridor.

A train carrying a load of containers has been sitting at the northern end of the Strand on the rail tracks along Dive Crescent. Following the Te Aroha 5.1M quake on Wednesday, SunLive readers asked if the work on the railway area along the Strand was due to damage from the quake, however KiwiRail says it is part of their planned maintenance.

'The work being carried out near The Strand in Tauranga is scheduled work to upgrade the track formation in that area,” says a KiwiRail spokesperson.

'We're expecting to complete the work by this evening [Friday January 6].”

The track work is unrelated to the Strand extension Rail Underpass Construction project which was due to start on January 4 but has been delayed due to the danger posed by the high winds.

'That project has had to be postponed due to weather conditions,” says a KiwiRail spokesperson. 'We will be looking to reschedule it later in the year.”

The Strand extension Rail Underpass Construction project has been delayed due to weather. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

Construction work to install the underpass was scheduled to take place from Wednesday, January 4 to Friday, January 6 2023.

"Due to deteriorating weather and a forecast that is expected to make conditions unfavourable to safely complete the installation, these works have needed to be postponed,” says a Tauranga City Council spokesperson.

"A new construction date is yet to be confirmed."