Protests
When the Gungahlin Drive Extension plans were made public, there were protests by various groups in order to stop or delay work on the road. The main protests came from a group called "Save The Ridge". This group were angry about the destruction of the flora and fauna that would occur with the GDE running through the Bruce / O'Connor Ridge. Meanwhile, another group called GDE Now! was formed, with a slogan 'Pave the Ridge'.
In 2004 Save The Ridge had a legal victory with the ACT Government in relation to local planning laws. The ACT Government then passed a new law with the purpose of overriding further legal challenges at the local level.
In 2005 Save The Ridge took the ACT Government and the National Capital Authority to the Federal Court of Australia in a further effort to have the project shut down. In September 2005 the Federal Court ruled in favour of the NCA and the ACT Government to give the go-ahead for the project to resume.
On 10 December 2006, during Stage 1 of the GDE opening, Save The Ridge again protested against the road, and called for an immediate halt to the rest of the construction taking place. They called the GDE "one of the most expensive non tunnelled single lane roads per kilometre in Australia's history."
Read more about this topic: Gungahlin Drive Extension