Public servants in Canberra may be asked to work at home or avoid the city centre, where a major construction project is tipped to disrupt traffic for years.
The ACT government will begin extending the city's light rail network from the CBD, known as Civic, towards the southern town centre of Woden later this year.
It describes this 11-kilometre route as "the biggest infrastructure project in the history of our city", saying it will create thousands of jobs and, when finished, reduce future traffic gridlock.
The initial extension covers just 1.7 kilometres to Lake Burley Griffin, but this work — which will elevate London Circuit so it intersects with Commonwealth Avenue — will take about two years.
Car parks and some roads will close during the construction, and Transport Minister Chris Steel said "some disruption for everyone" was inevitable.
"But we're trying to mitigate that as much as possible," he said.
"We've been engaging with … large employers, like the federal public service departments, in the lead-up to this disruption period around providing their staff with opportunities to work from home and provide more flexible ways of working."
Mr Steel said that might involve commuting "slightly later or slightly earlier to avoid the worst of the congestion".
ACT public servants had already been given "significant flexibility" to work from home, he said.
The minister encouraged other workers to use public transport if possible, travel outside peak periods, or walk or cycle.
But commuters would still be able to drive into the city if they needed to.
"We are closing parts of car parks across the city — 665 car [spaces] — but that's out of a total of 14,250 that are available across the city," Mr Steel said.
"There is ample parking around, but … it will mean that people have to change their habits."
Road surveillance network expanded
The ACT's traffic light system already relies on electronic surveillance, which gathers data for an artificial intelligence model that minimises traffic jams.
However, the government is adding more sensors, cameras and staff to prepare for the disruptions to come.
Mr Steel said Transport Canberra was installing 40 extra Bluetooth sensors, to give the government more information about where and when road traffic was accumulating.
Thirty new cameras were also being installed, which would be monitored by staff to help them decide whether they needed to intervene.
Mr Steel said the government would use social media to keep Canberrans updated about traffic problems as they arose, and which transport alternatives were available.
"The data collected from the traffic network will be used to inform directions to motorists before and during travel on the best ways to move around the city during the construction period," he said.
"Better surveillance of our roads throughout the day will also mean we can respond more quickly to events, like accidents holding up traffic."
The government has also set up a "disruption taskforce" to manage the traffic changes.
The taskforce's latest update says a "park and ride" station has now opened at Mawson, to encourage commuters to travel to Civic by bus.
Meanwhile, the city's e-scooter hire schemes have been expanded to include the Woden and Gungahlin areas.
