JUNEAU, Alaska, Sept. 22, 2007
Plans For 'Bridge To Nowhere' Killed
Alaska Scraps $398 Million Bridge Project, Keeps The Funding
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Play CBS Video Video Alaska's Bridge To Nowhere A controversial bridge project in Alaska may run into more problems because it could threaten the habitat of an endangered species. Jerry Bowen reports from Anchorage.
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(AP)
On Friday, Alaska decided the bridge really was going nowhere, officially abandoning the project in Ketchikan that became a national symbol of wasteful federal spending.
While the move closes a chapter that has brought the state reams of ridicule, it also leaves open wounds in a community that fought for decades to get federal help.
"We went through political hot water - tons of it - and not just nationally but internationally," Ketchikan-Gateway Borough Mayor Joe Williams said. "We have nothing to show for it."
The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on one island in southeastern Alaska, to its airport on another nearby island.
Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday the project was $329 million short of full funding.
"We will continue to look for options for Ketchikan to allow better access to the island," the Republican governor said. "The concentration is not going to be on a $400 million bridge."
Palin directed state transportation officials to find the most "fiscally responsible" alternative for access to the airport. She said the best option would be to upgrade the ferry system.
Ketchikan is Alaska's entry port for northbound cruise ships that bring more than 1 million visitors yearly. Every flight into Gravina Island requires a 15-minute ferry ride to reach the more densely populated Revillagigedo Island.
The town - seven blocks wide and eight miles long - has little room to grow. Local officials have said access to Gravina Island, population 50, is needed for the town and its economy to grow.
They called the state's decision premature, saying it came without warning.
"For somebody who touts process and transparency in getting projects done, I'm disappointed and taken aback," said state Rep. Kyle Johansen of Ketchikan. "We worked 30 years to get funding for this priority project."
Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, both Republicans, championed the project through Congress two years ago, securing more than $200 million for the bridge between Revillagigedo and Gravina islands.
Under mounting political pressure over wasteful spending, Congress stripped the earmark - or stipulation - that the money be used for the airport, but still sent the money to the state for any use it deemed appropriate.
Stevens spokesman Aaron Saunders said Friday the senator was interested in how the state ultimately used the money. A spokeswoman for Young said the congressman would have no comment.
Just last month, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona said pet projects could have played a role in a Minnesota bridge collapse that killed 13 people earlier this year.
"Maybe if we had done it right, maybe some of that money would have gone to inspect those bridges and other bridges around the country," McCain told a group of people at a meeting in Ankeny, Iowa.
"Maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending $233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it."
On Friday, Leo von Scheben, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, said the bridge money could be used to build roads in Alaska.
"There is no question we desperately need to construct new roads in this state, including in southeast Alaska, where skyrocketing costs for the Alaska Marine Highway System present an impediment to the state's budget and the region's economy," von Scheben said in a statement.
The governor urged Alaskans not to dwell on the bridge.
"Much of the public's attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here," Palin said. "But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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Worst thing they could do, because then they get their name on the project, free advertising for elections, and nepotism for their children''s campaigns. Then they will embezzle ("earmark" to their friends and relatives) enough funds from the treasury to get their money back, plus profit.
hawaii from long beach, ca. a great big public
works project. volunteers needed to build it.
used to be called slavery, now its called volunteer
work. bored? dissatisfied? work for free.
working can be fun. what are you lazy? many
around the world, sleep on a cot next to their
work station. will the stock market plummet 90%
in one hour on october 17th, the 90 year anniversary
of the bolshevik revolution? how many russian
sleepers do we have in the union of soviet america,
u.s.a.? of course, it can''t happen here, this
the u.s.a. maybe michael moore will stop it.
just think us marines died for his right to dissent.
and all those great sissy singers. and their
right to get drunk, doped and make love to anything
and anyone. they died for normal folk too. who
are sober, teetotalling and very chaste and abstinent.
looks like co-existence is a thing of the past.
sober nations is madder than hornets, and they
have a big crows nest. red byrds too. but i know
what''s really important is who will win the world
series? cardinals won last year i think? yom kippur.
Sounds like Bush''s foreign policy........
US taxpayer money being held: $398,000,000
2006 poulation estimate: 670,000.
Number of US Senators: 2 same as California or NY
Another argument to ditch the Senate and Electoral College in favor of a real democracy, where each persons vote is counted equally.
- by flreason September 22, 2007 7:13 PM EDT
- Excuse me, but why are my tax dollars going to Alaska for projects to build roads that are not federal highways? The rest of us pay state, county and local taxes for those projects. Alaska has no state income tax, and awards residents money from what the state receives from oil companies for North Slope drilling. If the project was cancelled, the money should be returned to the U.S. treasury to be applied against the incredible war debt that this administration intends to hand on to our children and grandchildren. It may be a pittance compared to the gigantic debt, but it''s time for Congress to stop viewing our hard-earned money as their personal piggy bank. If these projects are so dear to their hearts, why don''t they donate their own money. They need to focus first on things that benefit all citizens like education, government food and safety inspections, health care, and Social Security, all of which are seriously underfunded, in part because of tax revenue funneled to their political campaign supporters and boondoggles like this.
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