Fluoro-vested workmen were still dragging barriers off the road, and just nine seconds had elapsed since the lights were turned on, when a truck took advantage of the first green arrow at Dunedin's Anzac Ave traffic lights.
The truck roared up the previously closed Ward St overbridge on-ramp in a red-letter, or perhaps red-light, moment in recent Dunedin history.
Mayor Dave Cull described the moment as the end of ''a long-running irritant''.
For more than three long years - from about the same time as the completion of Forsyth Barr Stadium and before the staging of the Rugby World Cup in the city - the Anzac Ave traffic lights have remained stubbornly dark.
Yesterday, they were finally flicked on, and immediately began marshalling traffic on to the overbridge, into and out of Frederick St, and after cars and trucks stopped obediently at the red lights, up and down Anzac Ave.
The moment marked the end of one aspect of a long-standing feud between now Dunedin city councillor Doug Hall, and the council.
The realignment and traffic lights at the Anzac Ave-Frederick St intersection outside land formerly owned by Mr Hall has been at the centre of a wrangle that has cost ratepayers $659,000 since a new section of State Highway 88 was built around his property in 2011.
Mr Hall argued the council erred during the process of designating the land for the road, by not notifying him, which the council admitted.
He successfully sought a High Court injunction to stop the lights, at the entrance/exit to his property, being turned on until access to his site was improved.
Last year, he sold the property to Emerson's Brewery and the Environment Court approved a designation for the realignment as it was.
Mr Hall said recently he had a case for damages, and had instructed his lawyers to approach the council to discuss a compensation package to recoup what he said was more than $1 million in legal bills and other costs.
Yesterday, he said that matter had not been progressed.
Asked how he felt about the lights being turned on, he said: ''It's nothing really to do with me any more.''
Mr Cull said: ''The fact that they were off was a long-running irritant and an inconvenience insofar as it blocked off that end of the access to the overbridge.
''I think it's a great relief that they're on, and that traffic can flow much more efficiently and quickly through that intersection.''
Council roading projects engineer Michael Harrison, a council staff member who has been dealing with the issue since it began, was there when the switch was turned on in a nearby control cabinet.
''It's great,'' he said.
''We now have a fully functional and safe intersection.''
