Roadside memorials to the two teenage girls killed in a horrific crash on the Monaro Highway in October 2022 will make way for the highway's realignment and reshaped intersection with Lanyon Drive.
Best friends Claire Sankey, 15, and Susi Kopysiewicz, 14, were left to die in the maroon Toyota Camry which smashed into a tree on the median of the highway at Hume at around 200kmh.
The car had been driven by a 16-year-old recidivist offender who had been "trying to impress" the two girls in his mother's car when he lost control, spun the car and slammed backwards into a tree.
The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had consumed 12 stubbies of beer and about half a one-litre bottle of rum shortly before he went out in his mother's car.
The sleep-deprived offender had also been using cannabis and MDMA.
Immediately after the heavy crash which completely caved in the rear cabin section of the Camry where the two girls were passengers, he and his friend from the front seat abandoned the two critically injured girls and ran away.
Roadside memorials to victims like the two Canberra girls have been an ongoing and robust topic of conversation for decades around the world, and most common in situations where a person has died suddenly and tragically.
Such was the case with Claire Sankey and Susi Kopysiewicz, with family and friends regularly leaving messages and floral tributes.
However, progress has now intervened, and a 2019 ACT policy makes the government's position quite clear: Roads ACT has the power to remove a roadside memorial if it "impedes roadwork activities or underground services".
Under its 26-page policy, Roads ACT also has the discretion to remove memorials that are "insensitive or offensive" or not discreet enough, while any memorial cannot be higher than one metre, it must be "durable", and cannot pose a safety hazard to the public.
Not wanting to appear too insensitive, in a statement an ACT government spokesperson said the memorial to the two girls "will need to be relocated as part of the Lanyon Drive interchange works".
"The project team are currently engaging with a representative from the families of the two girls to identify an appropriate and safe location for the memorial.
"The new Lanyon Drive interchange, part of the Monaro Highway upgrade, will improve safety for the thousands of road users who travel along this corridor everyday as we work towards Vision Zero."
The Monaro Highway at Hume has been regularly cited via insurance claims data as one of the ACT's worst crash spots, despite it being two lanes each way, separated by a wide median.
Meanwhile, the young man who killed the two girls will be due for release from Bimberi Youth Detention Centre in eight months.
