Alaskan Bridge Projects Resist Earmarks Purge

[cal04]

Long after Congress removed about $450 million in budget earmarks for two bridges in the Alaskan exurbs, the fight over whether to build them is not dead.

Mocked as “bridges to nowhere” by critics who saw them as the epitome of Congressional excess, preparations for the projects have been slowly moving forward even as big questions remain over whether the bridges will be built.

When Congress removed the earmarks for the bridges in 2005, it still gave the state the money, but it allowed Alaskan officials to decide how to spend it. The state reserved about $200 million for the proposed bridges, far less than the construction costs but enough to show that there was serious intent to complete the projects. Some environmental and planning work has already been done.

Supporters of one of the bridges, the Knik Arm Crossing, are expected to get the proposal included in Anchorage’s long-range city transportation plan in April.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/us/06bridge.html?hp

[catnhatnh]

1. I looked into the Knik Arm deal...

total costs look like 2 BILLION dollars...to cross a minimum of 1 1/2 miles of water from a city of 260K to-get this-a commercial cargo handling area...that's right,at the cost of $7,692.30 for every man woman and child in Anchorage to REDUCE THEIR SHIPPING COSTS...got that-this is just to deliver goods and this AFTER they have arrived within miles of their destination...anyhow ignoring everything else,even if the savings was 20% of total shipping costs and even if it could magically appear there completed tomorrow each person in Anchorage would need to spend $38,461.50 JUST ON SHIPPING CHARGES to break even and THIS before a nickel was spent on routine bridge maintenance or repair....of course the dirty little secret is that Stevens has no intention these people pay $7500 apiece (Though they easily could since each Alaskan receives a check from oil revenues each year) but rather that like most rats he can steal a small piece of the big cheese that is the budget for all Americans and no one will notice...yet Gee,the 7.5K figure I see is real close to a number I saw bandied about the other day as the amount spent on each Katrina victim (never mind over half of that money "disappeared" to crooked contractors) while Bush implied that all that cash should certainly have replaced everything they lost...So anyhow would we rather spend $8000 per person to cut the shipping costs of Americans who receive oil subsidies and have homes, or would it better be spent to build lives for Americans who don't receive oil subsidies and have jack...just sayin'...