Tram? How about those lights for Sulwood Drive?

It's now more than six years since Kambah residents started raising concerns about safety on the busy road and the ad-hoc entry to Mount Taylor.

It's now five years since a car park was built at the base of Mount Taylor off Sulwood Drive - but it had no right-hand entry.

Motorists travelling west on Sulwood instead have to travel about a kilometre down the road to find somewhere to turn around, come back and then enter the car park with a left-hand turn.

And it's now almost three years since Transport Minister Chris Steel said he'd fix the problem. That was in June 2021.

Tellingly, the government never put a timeline on the project.

Now, the government says, a contract to build the works is expected to be awarded in March.

Construction is anticipated to start "soon after".

And guess what? It's all happening an election year for the Assembly.

Turning the first sod on the project six months out from when voters go to the polls - well that would be just good timing, right?

Of course, the government says the project has already started. It's not like nothing has happened in almost three years.

The government has so far put a raised pedestrian crossing in two streets off Sulwood Drive - Livingston Avenue and Inkster Street - to calm traffic and make it safer to cross those roads. Along with new street lighting.

But these big speed bumps do diddly squat to address the problems of getting into and out of the Mount Taylor carpark.

The Mount Taylor reserve, Steel has agreed over the years, is very popular with Canberrans who want to use it for exercise and as an escape into nature.

And almost three years after they were announced, we're still waiting for the big-ticket improvements - traffic lights at the intersection of Sulwood Drive and Mannheim Street, an off-road path on the southern side of Sulwood Drive between Drakeford Drive and Athllon Drive and a safe, right-hand turn into the Mount Taylor carpark.

An ACT government spokesperson said the works had not yet started because "an extended detailed design period was required due to the need for pavement rehabilitation works at the intersection upgrade and extended design time for the trees and landscaping associated with the works".

"The pavement works required a range of additional investigative works including geotechnical investigations which uncovered a lack of subsoil drainage beneath the road. Subsoil drainage is required under road pavements, particularly where there are street trees or landscaping elements," the statement read.

"We are also building infrastructure in a highly constrained environment due to the presence of the Mount Taylor Nature Reserve. There is an asset protection zone (also commonly referred to as a fire protection zone) which extends from the Mount Taylor Reserve and across to the southern side of the road corridor. This has impacted the landscaping component of the project and required extended consultation with other areas of government including Parks and Conservation Services as we balance community feedback regarding the existing trees, with the current standards for bushfire protection and mitigation."

The successful contractor will confirm "construction staging and timeframes". That is, when the work will be finished.

It's an election year in 2028, isn't it?