For motorists it may be a dusty construction site slowing traffic to and from Canberra's north, but from the air Majura Parkway is a trail of steady progress.
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Aerial photographs taken in June and December show the extent of work near the Australian Federal Police training complex.
Ten 32-metre-long girders installed on an access road bridge were completed in time to beat a Christmas curfew.
Each of the girders had to be hauled by truck from Newcastle, and heavy vehicles of this nature are not allowed on NSW's roads over the Christmas-January holidays.
The Tambreet Street interchange bridge is one of four girder bridges on the $288 million project which project director Malcolm Thomson said were on schedule.
''We have had average rainfall [for last year] so everything remains on schedule,'' he said.
Work stopped for the Christmas-New Year recess and will resume on Monday. A small team remained on site for security and emergency purposes.
The installation of the girders was one of several milestones for the first year of construction, which began last January and is due for completion in 2016.
Traffic has been redirected to new sections of the road on the north of the project and a sidetrack has enabled work to be done on the southern end near Morshead Drive.
The newly completed section near a wildlife corridor includes a fence rising 2.1 metres with mesh on top to prevent animals from getting onto the parkway. Underpasses have been constructed along the alignment for safe crossing by wildlife.
Contractors shifted 600,000 cubic metres of earth last year, along with about 50,000 cubic metres of engineered fill.
An important focus this year will be embankment approaches for the 220-metre-long bridge over the Molonglo River.
Meanwhile, Majura Valley Landcare Group president Sherry McArdle-English said short-term leaseholders in the area did not want to be kept in a holding pattern while the road was being built.
They needed long-term leases to secure bank finance and improve their leases for egg production, cheese making, grazing, and re-planting grassy woodlands.
The group wants to turn the valley into a tourist attraction linking with Pialligo.
Majura leaseholders Warwick and Julie Bailie of ''The Willows'' have lost four hectares to the new parkway.
''Our family watched as over 370 trees that were once home to a variety of wildlife were knocked over and removed,'' they wrote in a letter to The Canberra Times.
''Further along the creek we find bluestone walls built in the 1960s in an attempt to reduce erosion at creek junctions throughout the Majura Valley.
''The names of the men that built these walls, along with their handprints and paw prints and names of their trusty four-legged companions still adorn the walls, in an attempt to be remembered long into the future.
''Sacrifices have to be made to accommodate much needed infrastructure such as this,'' they acknowledged.
''Majura Road residents have made many.
''As you travel this new road in its various stages of completion we ask that you spare a thought for the families that are losing much cherished, familiar surroundings to facilitate this project.''
