Part of Canberra's CBD to reopen after 18 months of construction chaos

After 18 months of light rail construction, London Circuit East is slated to be partially reopened and public access to the Theatre Lane car park restored.Before construction commenced, the car park, which is across from the nightclub Mooseheads, housed more than 200 parking bays.Now, after a year and a half, the government said the light rail construction compound in the car park would be dismantled by Saturday.The government says it has planned for London Circuit East to be partially reopened for traffic, allowing drivers and cyclists to travel along the road. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)But the number of public parking spots set to reopen has decreased significantly to 57, to make room for the new Lyric Theatre.The ACT government said, along with the reopening of the car park, it planned for London Circuit East to be partially reopened to traffic, allowing people to travel along London Circuit East, past the car park and to turn left onto Northbourne Avenue for the first time since the start of last year.The territory government says it has planned for London Circuit East to be partially reopened for traffic. (Supplied: ACT government)The construction fencing will also continue to be removed as works are completed.Over the coming weeks, scaffolding at City South and Commonwealth Park stops is also expected to come down.ACT Planning Minister Chris Steel told 666 ABC Canberra, "as we move through the construction program, we'll start to see areas of the city opening up again".But many Civic businesses say the struggle is still not over.'Devastating': Canberra Business ChamberMany businesses in the city have reported struggling since construction on the 1.7 kilometre track extension began.Chief executive of the Canberra Business Chamber Greg Harford said the partial reopening of London Circuit East was the "start of the light at the end of the first tunnel".Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Greg Harford says there are major challenges for the western side of London Circuit. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)Mr Harford said that businesses had been "really impacted by the inability of customers to get to their premises easily"."The London Circuit roadworks have really been devastating for a lot of businesses," he said.But Mr Harford said major challenges remained on the western side of London Circuit, with works to continue there for some time."Those businesses ... have really lost a lot of customers over the last couple of years and that is set to continue," he said."I am certainly hoping we won't see more business closures over the next year or so, but there is a real risk of that."Canberra florist Pierce Jackson's family has two stores in the city. He said while one of those stores still received adequate foot traffic, the construction had made business extremely difficult for one store, which sometimes only received two customers per week.Pierce Jackson's family owns both Embassy Florist and Janine Florist in the city. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)"There's been no passing traffic at all," Mr Jackson said.He added that the florist had pivoted to rely on online deliveries and said other retailers that did not adapt to the situation "really struggled".He said he was "very grateful" London Circuit East was scheduled to reopen, but "feel[s] bad for the businesses that are still on the other side of the city".Steel defends light rail's impactMr Steel insisted the impact of light rail construction on Canberra city businesses was "temporary" and any venue closures would be due to multiple factors.He defended the project and also noted that the Business Council of Australia today ranked the ACT as the third best jurisdiction in the country for conducting business.ACT Planning Minister Chris Steel says there are a range of different factors impacting businesses. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)He told a press conference that "businesses want to see this project completed as soon as possible and that's the best thing that the government can do to limit the impact on their operations". The government said the light rail "remains on track" for construction to be completed in the first half of 2027 for testing, with the project on schedule for passengers to hop aboard in 2028.The ACT government announced today that 100 per cent of the Light Rail Stage 2A's track slab had been completed.