Conder's Maris Kennedy was in a more urgent rush than most Tuesday morning amid traffic delays that brought southern Tuggeranong traffic to a standstill.
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With a seriously ill dog requiring urgent veterinary attention she had two options: face a backlog of stationary traffic on Tharwa Drive or place seven-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Chloe, in her grandchild's pram and hike over a hill and up a drain to Calwell.
She felt forced to choose the latter. It took her and husband, Doug, just under an hour to push the sick dog through Canberra Nature Reserve to the vet.
Both directions of Tharwa Drive between the Drakeford Drive roundabout and Mentone View closed at 5am on Monday. The major arterial road isn't expected to reopen until Australia Day while a sewer main pipe for the new South Tuggeranong Fire and Rescue Station is installed.
Drivers have taken to social media to vent over the road closure which left commuters stuck in traffic for hours.
Emergency services minister Joy Burch said the community should recognise the "greater gain" of the new station before criticising the traffic delays its construction has caused.
But Ms Kennedy, who lives on Jane Price Street, said it was more than just an inconvenience.
"My concern was what if that had of been our grandchild that was sick?," she said.
"It could have been someone with a heart attack or a lady giving birth.
"We're so grateful to get this fire station but it should have all been worked out before this."
Ms Kennedy was relieved to discover Chloe's condition was not worse.
"She's OK. It's some sort of virus. But it was pretty traumatic," she said.
"We lost her mum before Christmas - we didn't want to lose her."
The grandmother has also had to adjust her babysitting routine in light of the delays.
"My son in law usually drops the [grandchildren] off to us and picks the children up. I now have to go to their place in Kambah and sleep over because they can't afford two hours to come down here," she said.
Ms Kennedy said the chaos also pointed to the need for an extra road linking southern Tuggeranong to the Monaro Highway as an alternative escape route during times of disaster, such as a bushfire.
