The $30 million Acton Waterfront Place project achieved a significant milestone during the week, with the first beam of the boardwalk extension craned into place.
And that steel structure jutting out of Lake Burley Griffin at West Basin is not another addition to the city's public art portfolio, but provisions for a possible future jetty.
City Renewal Authority chief executive officer Malcolm Snow said it was sheet piling that would eventually not be visible, gradually driven into the lake bed and lopped off.
"It's not urban art, no," Mr Snow said.
"It's sheet piling and we decided to include it in that particular section to future proof the opportunity for a jetty at some point in the future.
"Now, that's not funded at the moment, it's not in the scope of the boardwalk but in order to have the correct interface with a future jetty - because we want lots of watercraft using West Basin, including the ferries - we needed to include a discrete section of sheet piling.
"That gets driven into the lake bed until it pulls up and then they cut if off below the decking structure, so it's completely hidden."
The first beam of the boardwalk extension was lifted in on Tuesday. There will be 102 beams in total.
Each beam is seven to nine metres long, with some weighing up to 12 tonnes, adding another 550 metres of boardwalk.
"By the time it's in, it includes Henry Rolland Park, which was stage one, the total length of the boardwalk will be over 800 metres," Mr Snow said.
The boardwalk was likely to be finished by mid-2022.
Mr Snow said the project had been delayed about six weeks due to the latest COVID lockdown, with a specialist sub-contractor from Sydney tasked with lifting in the beams not able to enter the ACT until recently.
"We have such a fantastic contractor, we're confident they can make up that time, despite the wet weather. They're working through the rain," he said.
Mr Snow said with a park to be added to the site, the vision for the waterfront was starting to take shape.
"It will be a game-changing project, a city-shaping project for Canberra," he said.
