Along Baldwin Drive in Kaleen, residents tread carefully on the footpaths at night - high-powered torches in hand - to avoid snakes and fallen branches. A row of streetlights has been out of commission on a stretch of the road for more than 57 days.
Numerous complaints by concerned residents to Fix My Street and local politicians to repair the nine unlit streetlights have fallen on deaf ears. As a result, walkers and runners avoid the stretch at night. As of Tuesday, the darkness prevailed.
Kaleen resident Rod, who is in his mid-70s, often walks towards Lawson.
"I can't see a thing," he said while walking along Baldwin Drive near the Maribyrnong Avenue roundabout.
The walk through the dark stretch is treacherous, with headlights from passing vehicles piercing the gloom and blinding pedestrians.
While some residents have resigned themselves to the dark, many are steering clear.
Some locals, particularly women, have altered their evening exercise routines to take the reasonably lit path next to St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church instead.
Community advocate Dimitri Psihogios has been campaigning relentlessly for ACT government's City Services to fix the lights, but to no avail.
"Lights been out since August 3. They have been out for 57 days today. Tomorrow will be 58 days," he said on Tuesday evening.
Shortly after the nine lights stopped working, Mr Psihogios reported the fault via Fix My Street.
"The status of the job remains 'closed', even though the lights have been out for weeks. It's another issue with Fix My Street," the 26-year-old said.
It is not his first frustrating experience with the government services portal. Mr Psihogios previously reported a single broken streetlight near the sports club on Georgina Crescent.
"The light on the memorial walkway has been out since July. It's had four Fix My Street requests, but it's still out," he said, standing under the dark pole.
There has been minor relief on Baldwin Drive. A single pole with five lights on the adjacent Maribyrnong Avenue roundabout that was out for weeks was recently restored. However, the nine streetlights are still in the dark.
Streetlights on Baldwin Drive near the Maribyrnong Avenue roundabout in Kaleen have been repaired and are operating again following an extended outage, according to an ACT government spokesperson.
The government said the lights were fixed on September 22. However, The Canberra Times confirmed they were still non-functional on Tuesday evening.
A spokesperson attributed the prolonged delay to a series of compounding issues that required separate stages of repair.
"The initial damage was caused by a motor vehicle collision with a streetlight column, which meant the column needed to be replaced," the spokesperson said. "The timeframe for this work was affected by market supply issues for replacement streetlight columns.
"After the replacement column was installed and rewired, a series of underground cable faults were identified, which unfortunately caused further delay."
The government said it prioritises completing all necessary repairs during the same work activity where possible to minimise future disruptions and traffic impacts.
