A $64 million runway for no one in Alaska?

[Blue_Tires]

Remember Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere," a $400 million span that was supposed to connect Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely inhabited Gravina Island? The project gained infamy in 2005 as a waste of taxpayer dollars and the funds earmarked for it were withheld. The 8,000 residents of Ketchikan continue to be connected to their airport by ferry.

Fast forward six years and another remote Alaskan airport project is raising questions about how the government spends money.

The price this time is $77 million and the place is Akutan, a remote island village in the Aleutian chain, according to a report from the Alaska Dispatch.

By next winter Akutan is scheduled to have a 4,500-foot-long runway, built at a cost of $64 million ($59 million in federal and $5 million state funds), the Dispatch reports. The problem is, the runway is on Akun Island, 6 miles from the village across the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea. Plying those waters can be tricky with seas over 6 feet and winds above 30 mph.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/28/a-64-million-runway-for-no-one-in-alaska/?hpt=hp_t2

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Disengenuous article at best

1) There is part time air service via amphibian aircraft. Those planes date from WWII and have serious weather and sea state limitations.

2) Ferry/Hovercraft are very limited also by weather

3) By by building a landing strip air service will be more reliable and affordable.

CNN, like most media can not get a single thing right when it comes to aviation

[jwirr]

2. Airways may actually be more important than roads to some parts

of Alaska. Many communities can only be reached thy air.