Alaska Ends Plan for 'Bridge to Nowhere'

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin ordered state transportation officials Friday to abandoned the "bridge to nowhere" project that became a nationwide symbol of federal pork-barrel spending.

The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on one island in southeastern Alaska, to its airport on another nearby island.

"Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer," Palin said in a news release.

She directed the transportation department to find the most "fiscally responsible" alternative for access to the airport.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_uAaHzwQn-O9TZHU3j0maSkmkoA

[jimnasium]

1. So, in other words...

The bridge to nowhere will actually reach its destination. Very nice.

Now, if we can shit-can Ted Stevens...

Any undercover vice cops sitting in airport restrooms in Anchorage?

[Xithras]

2. I've never understood why they wanted a $400 million bridge anyway.

I never disputed the need for the bridge there, but I've never seen a justification of the costs. What were they planning to build, a gold plated suspension bridge?

My problem with the project is that it's too much money for too few people. Someone once pointed out that Alaska could build a much lower bridge across the strait with a drawbridge for ship traffic for less than $100m. If that had been the proposal, I doubt the rage against this thing would have been so intense.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Wimps

If the Inuit can use kayaks why cant the Ketchikans ?

[hvn_nbr_2]

4. I'd be willing to help fund a "plank to nowhere"...

for Stevens to walk.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Couldn't resist it

Talking heads : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLiX8sgfgQU

[shenmue]

6. Thank goodness

Finally, some sanity.

[eridani]

7. Only the bridge that is No Bridge is long enough to go NoWhere n/t

[harpboy_ak]

8. Unfortunately they still have another one in Los Anchorage

The Knik Arm bridge, originally named "Don Young's Way", totally unneeded except for a bunch of real estate developers at Port McKenzie want it, along with all the Los Anchorage contractors. The stupid thing is that we have many other needs for roads in Alaska, all of them on the state's Federally mandated State Transportation Improvement Project (aka STIP) list, projects that were scheduled based on actual needs and traffic projections. Instead, Dumb Young overrode that list and imposed his monument on us.

What I'm afraid of is that Gov. Sarah will instead use the money to push the Lynn Canal highway to nowhere, a road that was originally planned to go from Skagway to Juneau to connect Alaska's capital city to the national road system but will only go to another ferry terminal because it would have to cross Klondike National Park land to get to Skagway, and the Park Service won't allow it.

Even worse, the route is almost all cliffs, which will mean a huge scar up one of Alaska's most beautiful fjords, ruining the scenic value, destroying the incredibly productive Berner's Bay on which the Lynn Canal salmon fishery depends on the way. This route has 40, yes 40 avalanche chutes, so it would be closed half the winter anyway, and would cost well over half a billion to build and millions to maintain, when what we need are more and improved ferries.

Well, at least one bridge to nowhere down, only one more to go...

[Ediacara]

9. Alaska abandons controversial Ketchikan bridge project (bridge to nowhere)

Source: Seattle Times

By STEVE QUINN
The Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska — Some called it a bridge to the future. Others called it the bridge to nowhere.

The bridge is going nowhere.

On Friday, the state of Alaska officially abandoned the controversial project in Ketchikan that became a national symbol of federal pork-barrel spending.

It closes a chapter that has brought the state reams of ridicule, but 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," said Ketchikan-Gateway Borough Mayor Joe Williams. "We have nothing to show for it."

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003897011_webbridge22.html

[whistle]

10. How about building the tunnel under the Bering Strait into Russia and

...and joining the Eurasian Land-bridge with North America?

[struggle4progress]

13. Or join New York and San Francisco by canal!

[Ian David]

14. That works for me, since there's nothing important in between that we can't do without. n/t

[Tian Zhuangzhuang]

18. Heck we have had a New York to Chicago canal for over a 100 years.

And nobody uses it like they used to. :(

[okoboji]

17. heres a project

build a glass bubble over the whole U.S., so you can keep, illegals and terrorist out.

</sarcasm>

[Ian David]

11. Now can we use the money to rebuild New Orleans?

FUCK YOU, TED STEVENS!
SUCK MY SERIES OF TUBES!

Oh, those poor, sad deprived real estate speculators.

My hear weeps for them.

And the people who live on the island...

It's a fucking ISLAND!

That means it is surrounded by water on all four sides.

It was surrounded by water when you moved there.

Did you not NOTICE that you were on a fucking ISLAND?

If you didn't WANT to be isolated from the mainland... why did you move to a fucking ISLAND?

Did you consider maybe a PENINSULA instead?

No.

You chose to live on a fucking island.

Geesh.

[Fiendish Thingy]

12. I don't think the constituents on the island lobbied for the bridge...

but the construction companies involved surely did.

I was on vacation in Alaska a few weeks ago, and while on a tour of Ketchikan, the guide mentioned the bridge, and said someone had figured out it would have been cheaper to buy each and every resident of the island their own boat or seaplane rather than build this bridge.

[liberal renegade]

15. They could probably have one of each

because the actual cost would be 2 times higher than their guesstimate....

[rasputin1952]

16. Good God! Don't give Stevens any ideas...

:rofl: