Treacherous road conditions in the Bay of Plenty will continue into the weekend, and expected rain will bring no relief, says Tauranga strategic traffic unit sergeant Mark Holmes.

There were three ice related crashes in the Western Bay on Thursday. They were a crash in black ice on Taumata Road at 2am, another at Rocky Cutting Road at 6.45am and the third at Allport Road; south of Paengaroa at 8.40am.
A woman suffered a broken leg in the Taumata Road accident, and the driver of the Allport Road vehicle suffered minor injuries after the vehicle rolled through a fence.
'There will be similar conditions on Friday morning,” says Mark.
'At Rocky Cutting Road there was black ice all over the road and the traffic could not get going. We had to close that section of Welcome Bay Road and divert traffic through Kairua Road,” says Mark.
An added problem for early morning commuters is sun strike.
There is ice today on sections of State Highway 29 from Gargan Road at Tauriko.
'The problem is the ice doesn't melt in the shaded areas,” says Mark. 'It stays on the ground and you get frost on top of frost.”
Expected rain this weekend will bring its own problems. The grit laid to provide traction on ice actually creates a slippery surface.