Thames Coromandel Mayor Glen Leach would like to see part of the new Kopu bridge opened early, at peak times, to help ease congestion there.
The present one-lane bridge on State Highway 25 at Thames has huge backlogs as people travel to and from the Coromandel area during holidays.
It was closed for several hours on Thursday because of a structural problem.
A new bridge being built alongside is not due to open until mid-2012.
But Mr Leach says that if one lane could be opened early, on peak days only, traffic going west could use the new bridge and traffic going east could use the old bridge.
He says that would make a big improvement to holiday traffic.
