More than 30 millimetres of rain on Sunday and Monday has stopped construction on the new Majura parkway, eased the bushfire threat and started raising the level of Lake Burley Griffin.
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Parkway contractors have used all of the 45 wet days allowance built into their contact for this year, according to Roads ACT director Tony Gill.
But it will not stop overall work from finishing in March 2016, three months ahead of schedule. Mr Gill said the June 2016 completion date was always a conservative target and given average weather conditions, the contractors were confident of finishing earlier.
Mr Gill said the rain's biggest impact would be on earthworks and earth moving near the new road's intersection north of Fairbairn Avenue, although good progress had been made there, minimising the delay.
''Once you get [construction] out of the ground after you have done your excavation, you've placed your initial road base and you are starting your structures and concrete work, the impact of weather like this is less from two points of view.
''One is once rain has stopped, on structures you can get back and start working immediately, whereas with earthworks you have ground that is saturated for a week or more.''
If the skies cleared on Tuesday, work could resume on structures, but not on earthworks.
Had the rain not arrived, planned traffic switches would have proceeded at the end of this month near the interchange with the Federal Highway, from the existing road to new sections.
Because of the rain, the switch would happen early next month.
''At the moment we are still a little in the laps of the gods, because [the rain] can saturate the ground and heavy equipment won't be able to use it in various sections for a period of time,'' Mr Gill said.
Other delays include stage one earthworks at Ashley Drive, Tuggeranong, and at Molonglo's Stretton Drive and Cotter Road.
National Capital Authority acting chief executive Andrew Smith said Lake Burley Griffin's level had risen 190mm since Sunday morning.
''This is certainly a good start to achieve the 500mm level increase required to reach full capacity.
''With the lower and upper catchment receiving consistent rainfall over this period, and further rainfall predicted, we anticipate another substantial increase in the lake level over the week.''
ACT Rural Fire Service chief officer Andrew Stark said: ''So far we have received over 30mm of rain … That will calm things down for two or three weeks.''
