Concrete bus shelters designed by Clem Cummings in 1974 have become a much-loved symbol of Canberra yet after changes to bus routes some of the shelters have been left behind.

The sad fate of some of these landmarks prompted the ACT government to rehome them and give them a makeover.

"What we like to do is reuse the shelters and put them on the network where they will really get some good valuable use," Carl Pillig, from Transport Canberra and City Services, said.

"We look at open areas and parklands, community facilities, new and developing areas."

IN OTHER NEWS:

The shelters have been repainted in original colours and scurried off to sites in Wright, Moncrieff, Forde, Bonner, Conder, Aranda, Phillip, Gordon and Kaleen.

Two shelters originally from Holder and Phillip were relocated to at bus stops on Opperman Avenue, bordering Wright and Denman Prospect.

"I think people are quite chuffed to see some of these iconic structures making their way into the new suburbs," Mr Pillig said.

"There is a lot to be said for bringing such iconic pieces of Canberra to some of the newest suburbs, it feels a bit more like home."

He said there were 481 concrete bus shelters in Canberra with 34 shelters still not connected to a bus route.

Mr Pillig said the directorate still needed to assess those final stranded bus shelters to see if they could be relocated at a later date.

It's not the first time bus shelters have been moved.

Mr Pillig said some shelters were recently moved to Mitchell where the directorate was trialing solar lighting at the site.

"We haven't lit concrete shelters before," he said.

"I've been out to Mitchell at four o'clock in the morning making sure they are still lit, so I've got to say I'm a bit passionate about bus shelters."

These projects beg the question: how do you move a solid concrete shelter across to another part of the city?

"It's quite a process," Mr Pillig said.

"First we need to identify a suitable site, then there is site preparation, foundations that need to be poured prior to the shelter being relocated.

"[Meanwhile] at the site where the shelter is coming from, contractors carefully break out the concrete beneath the shelter and around the shelter and get into a state where its able to be lifted.

"They lift them by slinging through the windows of the shelter and then they're lifted by crane.

"There are lifting fittings in the roof of the shelters but because of their age we don't use those lifting points."

From there, the shelter is loaded onto a truck where it travels to its new location.

For Mr Pillig there is one overlooked problem with rehousing bus shelters.

"I've worked with Trevor Dickinson and he put out a book recently called Beautiful Bus Shelters of Canberra," Mr Pillig said.

"It's my new bible because it's got a photograph of every single concrete shelter in Canberra.

"My one has scribble all over, I use it as a reference all the time.

"I had to tell him the sad news that his book was already out of date."

For faster access to the latest Canberra news, download The Canberra Times app for iOS and Android.