In 2022, I asked the question, "Do we really need to duplicate Athllon Drive?".

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I'm asking it, again, but the nearly $100 million upgrade has been approved and will be under construction soon for the next two to three years. So, it's kind of a rhetorical question, if you will. Or, maybe, a cry in the dark.

The $98.55 million project, jointly funded by the ACT and Commonwealth governments, will duplicate traffic lanes on Athllon Drive, between Sulwood Drive and Drakeford Drive. (The extra bit of duplication of Athllon Drive, between Hindmarsh Drive and Melrose Drive, appears to have been put on the backburner.)

Full disclosure: I live close to the proposed works and drive that section of Athllon Drive pretty much every day. It's busy in the morning but not crazy. And it's over quickly. It's not gridlock. The rest of the day, that section of Athllon Drive is almost desolate.

The works will also put a new underpass under Sulwood Drive for pedestrian and cycling traffic. Part-time traffic lights will go in at the Athllon Drive/Sulwood Drive roundabout.

The roundabout on Athllon Drive as it intersects with Atkins Street and Langdon Avenue will be replaced by traffic lights. There will also be new traffic lights at the Vosper Street and Fincham Crescent intersections of Athllon Drive.

So five sets of traffic lights will be on a 2.4km section of Athllon Drive between Sulwood Drive and Drakeford Drive. One for almost every 500 metres!

Planning Minister Chris Steel is holding firm to his long-held view that the duplicated road will save bus passengers two minutes on their peak-hour trip between Tuggeranong and Woden. Two minutes! Whoop-de-doo!

"The two-minute reduction in travel times on the R4 and R5 routes remains accurate, continuing to deliver more efficient and reliable bus services for commuters," an ACT government spokesperson said.

"Upgrades to Athllon Drive will include lane duplication and new traffic signals which will reduce congestion and improve traffic flow, supporting safer and more reliable bus travel."

The Athllon Drive duplication was first announced in 2012 by Zed Seselja when he was the opposition leader, a month before the ACT election of that year. Labor and the Liberals both went into the 2016 election promising the upgrade. And it's been a perennial election promise since then.

The Greens are the only ones who have questioned the necessity of the duplication.

"Really, what we are looking at here is an expensive road project, a short window where we get a shiny duplicated road, and then the government tearing it all up again to lay down light rail a few years later. Seriously, it's a scene straight out of Utopia," Greens MLA for Brindabella, Laura Nuttall said, in 2025.

I think there are some good things within the project. The Sulwood Drive underpass for cyclists and pedestrians is very much needed for safety reasons, more than anything. And, just based on my experience, traffic lights at the Fincham Crescent intersection would probably make a difference, given the number of smashed cars you regularly see left at the intersection.

But the rest? Not entirely sure it's needed. Is it good policy to keep kicking around an idea first raised 14 years ago?

The Tuggers population explosion!

What I can't get over is how the project is supported by population projections from Treasury that have Tuggeranong suddenly going from having stagnant growth, or even a reduced population, to instead experiencing a whopping 29 per cent increase in its population by 2065.

What is behind this sudden change, meaning Tuggeranong's population will be nudging 120,000 people within 40 years? (It's currently just over 90,000.)

An ACT government spokesperson reckons it's about "life choices". Or something.

"The ACT Population Projections 2025 to 2065 used updated modelling to better reflect the life choices and housing capacity in Canberra's suburbs - rather than a change in planning or policy," they said.

"This updated modelling led to a change in the population projections for Tuggeranong since the last population projections were released in 2022.

"The ACT government has also committed to enable more well-located housing close to transport corridors and will develop a future transit-oriented development (ToD) plan for Tuggeranong focused on the main bus corridor on Athllon Drive. This will be developed following the ToD planning in the northern and southern gateways."

Are you one of the Canberrans likely to make a "life choice" and move to Tuggers for its forthcoming population explosion? Or not? Let us know in the comments.

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