How ferry project, pushed by Sen. Stevens, floated "double the Navy's original $29.9 million"

[L. Coyote]

How ferry project, pushed by Sen. Stevens, floated
By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-09-27-Ferry_N.htm


WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Stevens, who championed $452 million in federal funding for Alaska's notorious "bridges to nowhere," has directed the Navy to build an experimental ferry it once rejected to serve a little-used port in a remote area of his home state.

The high-speed ferry will connect Anchorage to Port MacKenzie in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $84 million. The project follows the same route as one of the two "bridges to nowhere," which the non-partisan Taxpayers for Common Sense and others spotlighted in 2005 as examples of wasteful projects promoted by members of Congress that benefit few people.

.....

The 3-mile ferry route will turn a 2½-hour drive into a 15-minute trip to Port MacKenzie, which has two businesses that employ about 40 people combined. The borough, known as Mat-Su, will own and operate the passenger-vehicle ferry and give the Navy data on its operation as a possible ship-to-shore transport vessel.

In an e-mail to USA TODAY, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) said it did not request the funding. ..... The ferry alone is now expected to cost $58 million, the Navy statement said. That's nearly double the Navy's original $29.9 million agreement with the shipbuilder.

[AlCzervik]

1. Jesus Ted "Boeing" Stevens is spending like we have it.

[mediaman007]

2. If we don't give it away in Iraq, lets give it away in Alaska.

What a country. The Republicans harp about fiscal responsibility, but there isn't a bookkeeper worth a shit in their party!