Tauranga City Councillors were given a tour of the Tauranga Eastern Link site on Friday, joining a list that includes national politicians and media.

Mayor Stuart Crosby and Tauranga City Councillors on tour at the Tauranga Eastern Link work site.

'It's something that we are quite proud of,” says NZTA project manager Andrew Scott. 'I suppose one of the key challenges that we have got is that two thirds of the project is happening out of the public eye, and trying to get people to understand the size and scale of what we are achieving is quite hard.

'This is one way of actually showing people what's happening out here.”

The informal tour took councillors from the publically accessible information centre in Tara Road to each end of the site, showing how the engineers are solving the problems presented by building a modern highway over metres deep peat and old swamp.

The road covers ground that has been settled migrated over and fought over since Moriori times.

They have found what appears to be a 600-year-old Maori stone adze, says Andrew.

'It's currently with the Historic Places Trust for assessment – they believe the stone was sourced from Nelson,” says Andrew.

When the Historic Places Trust has finished its evaluation, he's hoping they will be able to display the adze at the information centre as part of the educational display.

'It's actually quite exciting, there's quite a lot of archaeological evidence associated with the project because of all the waves of battles, migration and history within the area.

'We have found quite a few hangi stones, flints and quite a few middens, but to find something like this is quite exciting.”