Local Demanding Action on Pekatahi Bridge

A petition from ten years ago has been reopened in the hopes that NZTA will complete the promised double lane Pekatahi Bridge before 2029.

Local Mawera Karetai said a decade ago she was calling for Government action to provide a new bridge, and now more than ever she is determined to get it.  

Last year the Government announced the construction of the new bridge would begin in 2027 and take 18 months to complete. 

Now NZTA are completing repair work every four months on the existing bridge until the new bridge opens in 2029. 

Karetai said the bridge is unsafe and damaging vehicles, so a new bridge needs to be delivered sooner. 

"People are really annoyed and rightly so because it's costing money."

Community members have complained about the deck surface and damage it is doing to their tyres, which is only going to get worse she said. 

"A lot of times, while they (NZTA) have done yet more upgrades on it, they don't last because at the end of the day the bridge has passed its useful life."

Continuing bridge maintenance until 2029 will be costly and will not stop the damage she said.  

"I was actually just in a conversation with someone who talked about putting lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig and that bridge definitely meets that requirement of being not an acceptable bridge for our community to use," Karetai said.

With Kiwifruit season now underway, traffic across the bridge will only increase. 

"We're soon to be having kiwifruit coming on, there's of course that constant stream of forestry and the Eastern Bay of Plenty feeds the port of Tauranga."

"The very least we could have is a reliable way of getting that freight to the port."

Her petition calls for the new bridge to be delivered sooner to keep the community and freight links connected and safe.  

"We need a two-lane bridge, we need it for community safety, we need it for freight and we need it because life is hard enough without wrecking people's tyres," she said. 

Since opening the petition last week, Karetai said around 300 people have signed it. 

She encourages more people to sign it before she takes it to Parliament, demanding action.  

East Coast MP Dana Kirkpartick said she is "rattling cages" about the issue. 

"I know it's an absolute disaster zone and not acceptable on any level."

"I'm feeling so bad for the people who have to use that bridge on a daily basis and are just mortified by the state of it and not to mention the damage to their vehicles and everything else."

Kirkpatrick assured the community she will be following up with NZTA to get a resolution.