Palin's Fabulous Road To Nowhere Opens
$25,000,000 for 3.2 miles of gravel
"Alaska may not have a Bridge to Nowhere, but it now has a Road to Nowhere. The state this week completed a $25 million gravel road that was intended to lead up to the bridge linking the city of Ketchikan to its airport on a neighboring island. The bridge project became the symbol of federal largess, and Congress eventually dropped the earmark for the bridge. The state still received the money, but Gov. Sarah Palin - who once supported the bridge - last fall killed the project, valued at nearly $400 million.
Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein said the 3.2-mile road now is ideal for road races and hunting, and possibly some commercial development. But with no bridge to serve it, that's probably about it."
"Alaska may not have a Bridge to Nowhere, but it now has a Road to Nowhere. The state this week completed a $25 million gravel road that was intended to lead up to the bridge linking the city of Ketchikan to its airport on a neighboring island. The bridge project became the symbol of federal largess, and Congress eventually dropped the earmark for the bridge. The state still received the money, but Gov. Sarah Palin - who once supported the bridge - last fall killed the project, valued at nearly $400 million.
Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein said the 3.2-mile road now is ideal for road races and hunting, and possibly some commercial development. But with no bridge to serve it, that's probably about it."
posted by nolocontendere at 8:54 PM
3 Comments:
A $25 million gravel 3.2 mile road?
you've got to be fucking kidding me... this from a Republican govenor?
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska may not have a "Bridge to Nowhere," but it now has a "Road to Nowhere."
This week, the state completed a $25 million 3.2 mile gravel road that was intended to lead up to the bridge linking the city of Ketchikan to its airport on a neighboring island.
The bridge project became the symbol of federal largess, and Congress eventually dropped the earmark for the bridge.
The state still received the money, but last fall, Gov. Sarah Palin killed the project, valued at nearly $400 million.
Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein said the 3.2-mile road now is ideal for road races and hunting and possibly some commercial development. But with no bridge to serve it, that's probably about it.
The bridge has also become a focal point in the presidential race with Palin, now GOP presidential nominee John McCain's running mate, repeatedly telling crowds that she told Congress "thanks but no thanks" for that Bridge to Nowhere.
The state is considering cheaper designs for a bridge. State lawmakers made a brief attempt at securing funding for a bridge during this year's legislative session.
The two-bridge project would have connected the town's airport on Gravina Island to Revillagigedo Island, where most of the 13,000 residents of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough live.
The airport is separated from its users by a quarter-mile-wide channel of water, forcing travelers to catch either a ferry or a water taxi...
WAKE UP AMERICA!
Poor management by any estimate.
June 19, 2007
Palin can become a bridge builder
by Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.
The aftershocks of the national debate over Alaska's two costly proposed bridges -- the Gravina and Knik Arm "bridges to nowhere" -- stretched far beyond the state. The cavalier attitude toward taxpayer money shown by the Alaska congressional delegation proved to Washington politicians that there is a taste barrier beyond which the public will revolt, and that a small number of determined activists could effect change in a nation of 300 million.
As a result, Congress removed the earmarks for the two bridges in 2005 and, in early 2007, new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi de-funded more than 10,000 other earmarks left over from the previous Congress. The new Congress also is on course to enact lobbying/earmark reform legislation, and several months ago Sens. Tom Coburn and Barack Obama convinced both houses to enact sweeping legislation on earmark transparency.
None of this would have happened without Alaska's proposed bridges.
While Washington is moving to address its earmark problems, a mopping-up operation remains in Alaska regarding the Gravina Bridge. Taxpayer funds will be spent this summer to build a gravel "access" road to this nonexistent bridge. It turns out that Alaska received approximately $24 million in federal earmark funds to build this "access" road, which will end at a beach.
Why is the state building this road? Simply because $24 million in federal money is available. Regardless, the project lacks merit -- and unless Gov. Sarah Palin decides to do otherwise, this wasteful "access" road will move forward.
Let's analyze what's wrong with this situation. First, Congress earmarked (and subsequently de-earmarked) federal money for the unnecessary and expensive Gravina Bridge project.
Second, even though the state Legislature canceled the bridge component of the project, the state plans to proceed with this relatively small portion, which has highly questionable need but which retains federal funding.
Third, the state will knowingly ignore the fact that, at $8 million per mile, this 3-mile gravel road will be an extremely expensive use of taxpayer money with little to no measurable benefit (except to the road contractor, of course).
There is an alternative, however: Gov. Palin could return the money for the gravel "access" road to Washington, perhaps even with a request that the money go to rebuild hurricane-ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi. While Alaska, or any state for that matter, naturally is reluctant to return money to the federal government, doing so is the responsible and ethical thing to do and likely would benefit Alaska in the long run. Currently, officials from other states resent Alaska because the state in recent years received the highest per capita level of federal spending. This fact, coupled with the state's "bridges to nowhere" reputation for wasteful spending, makes elected federal representatives from other states more than happy to vote to reduce Alaska's federal appropriations.
Because returning money to the federal government is so unusual, Gov. Palin and the state of Alaska inevitably would reap enormous amounts of good publicity nationally. If she returned the federal money, Palin would be signaling to the rest of the country that, under her administration, Alaska will carefully handle taxpayer dollars responsibly. There's no better way for the governor to build bridges, metaphorically speaking, with the rest of the country.
Ronald Utt is the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
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This may be a surprise to most of you but we've been had. I was in Ketchikan last week. The geography of Alaska is not something I was prepared for but specifically my stop in Ketchikan. As we approached the town on a ship called the Statendam, it was immediately apparent that this town is booming. For reasons of political manipulatin by economic forces, Ketchikan was abandoned by the forestry industry leaving tons of people out of work and a housing market on the verge of collapse.
The citizens got busy and the port of call I was making there was proceeded by 10,000 toursits all loaded into a half dozen cruise ships and docked ahead of our ship. The construction boom going on there took twenty minutes of video on a moving ship to document. I was impressed. As I mentioned, the geography is not what we are used to. The town was on port side and rose 3,000 feet from the dock in less than a mile. Not much usable land for growth of the town. The airport was on the starboard side and the island was flat, very long and uninhabited a mere half mile from an overcrowded and space limiting bustling little metropolis. I saw a 737 taking off. I live in a city of 80,000. We don't get jets. We're too small. The airport in Ketchikan is not a luxury. Consider the distance to anywhere USA and you realize that this airport is critical to the people who live there. It took us 4 days on a ship to get there albeit we had stops in Skagway and Juneau which I have allowed for.
I'm sticking to what I said earlier. Palin is "hot". The "bridge to nowhere" was propaganda by carpetbaggers looking to sqeeze a local economy out of their jewel in the wilderness. Incidentally, there are fruit trees including cherries that manage to produce by the end of summer. The streams running through the town are so chockfull of salmon that you could literally run across without getting wet. The halibut season had just opened after being closed for 20 years. Some of these fish were 900 pounds. Alaska will be 50 years in the union in 2009. Palin may have baggage but she is your best hope by far. The above article was written by The Heritage Foundation. Anyone want to guess who they work for?
First appeared in Anchorage Daily News
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