>>None of the stories I read talk about the airport in any detail.<<
As I stated previously here, I don't support the bridge. I'll post further on that later. Meanwhile, here is a highly detailed and realatively unbiased article on the bridge...
National spotlight has Ketchikan uncomfortable
City officials say project is misunderstood; others in this Southeast town want to give money back
adn.com
By SEAN COCKERHAM
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: September 18, 2005)
KETCHIKAN -- Mike Salazar, the Ketchikan borough mayor, had just fielded a call from Reader's Digest. Another reporter wanting to talk about "the Bridge to Nowhere."
The proposed $315 million bridge from this small Alaska city to a neighboring, nearly uninhabited island, has become a sensation. It's made Ketchikan famous, but not in a way Salazar likes.
"It makes me frustrated that we haven't been able to communicate our need well enough for the rest of the United States to understand it," said the mayor, who was first elected to the town council in 1976.
Salazar said, "Everybody calls it a bridge to nowhere. ... It's a bridge to our future."
Alaska's southernmost city has managed to give liberal radio host Garrison Keillor and conservative firebrand Pat Buchanan something to agree on.
Both men, and a legion of columnists, entertainers and talk show hosts, have ridiculed the bridge. It's become known in newspapers from Pryor Creek, Okla., to London as "the Bridge to Nowhere."
It has been offered as a prime example of congressional pork and lately has been blamed for the devastation Hurricane Katrina inflicted on New Orleans. Buchanan, who won the 1996 Republican presidential primary election in Alaska, said in his nationally syndicated column:
"Before Bush went off on vacation, he signed a $286 billion highway bill containing $24 billion in pork -- among which was a quarter-billion-dollar bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska, population 8,000, to Gravina Island, population 50. Had half that sum been spent fortifying the levees of Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans would not be underwater today."
In Ketchikan nowadays, there's evidence of bridge guilt, with a few people suggesting money be given back and used for hurricane relief.
But the borough mayor said that's far from the prevailing view in this rain-soaked town of tourist shops, totem poles and fishermen's bars. Ketchikan is wedged like other Southeast Alaska towns in between the mountains and the sea. The borough population, including the city itself, is about 13,000 people.
Salazar said the bridge to the 20-mile-long Gravina Island will give Ketchikan just what it needs -- access to flat, unoccupied land that can be developed.
In that respect, "nowhere" is exactly where Ketchikan is trying to get.
BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE
The bridge is a huge undertaking. It will be more than a mile long in two sections. It will soar 200 feet over the east channel of Tongass Narrows, landing on Pennock Island and then taking off again, 120 above the west channel to reach Gravina.
In addition to the price tag, it comes with an annual maintenance and repair cost estimated to average more than $1 million.
To get started, Alaska Congressman Don Young, as chairman of the House Transportation Committee, earmarked more than $223 million for the project in the national highway bill that Congress passed this summer. Young argues that Lower 48 states were able to grow with federal money for roads and bridges and it is Alaska's turn.
It is not exactly free money. More than 65 percent of it will be deducted from Alaska's share of the general highway funds that pay for projects statewide.
Also, the Legislature must still contribute about $63 million. Bridge proponents expect to get the state money this spring. The state would put the project out for bid next summer. Construction could begin the following winter, and the bridge could ready for use four years after that.
Young dismisses the bridge-to-nowhere critics. They are "just smoking pot," he has said. But here in Ketchikan, it's easy to find people who think this is a bad idea.
Bridge opponents include perhaps Ketchikan's best known resident, artist Ray Troll, whose surreal fish-themed art and T-shirts with slogans such as "Spawn Till You Die" are widely known.
Troll, taking a break from drawing piranhas in his downtown studio, said the bridge "seems absolutely ridiculous."
"I'm embarrassed to see the town of Ketchikan become synonymous with a $300 million bridge," Troll said.
He took out a calculator to figure the cost per person. It adds up to more than $24,000 per resident.
Local leaders point to a 2002 election where almost two-thirds voted to allow borough land be used for "a bridge across the Tongass Narrows."
The vote was seen as a referendum for the bridge. But Troll said he believes that, if there were an election right now on using the money for the bridge or for building up the New Orleans levees, almost everyone in town would say no to the bridge.
Ketchikan city Mayor Bob Weinstein said talk of returning the money is ridiculous.
He said hurricane response is a separate national responsibility. The transportation funds come from the national gasoline tax. Weinstein said he hasn't seen any other state trying to give back its portion.
A BRIDGE AND A FERRY
Bridge talk dates back at least to when the local airport was built on Gravina in 1973. The project documents say convenient access to the airport is one of the main reasons for building the bridge, although advocates emphasize opening up land as the big impetus.
Right now, passengers take a cross-channel ferry from the airport into town. The ferries leave every 15 or 30 minutes, depending on the time of day and the time of year. One ferry can carry up to 100 people and 12 cars; the other can carry 21 cars and 100 passengers. The ride across Tongass Narrows from the airport, maybe a quarter-mile, took four minutes on a recent visit.
The ferry ride costs $5 each way for a passenger and another $6 to bring a car. The bridge could save time for downtown residents going to the airport but would likely mean a longer trip than the ferry for those on the north end of town.
Mike Carney, the airport manager, said at least one of the ferries will still run, even with a bridge. The bridge will likely be shut down sometimes because of winds, he said.
"I can get a medevac out of here on a jet a lot quicker (by ferry) than you would with a bridge," Carney said.
Standing at the airport, a bridge looks easy. But a direct crossing to the town side could interfere with air traffic or block the cruise ships from going through the Narrows.
That's a big deal. Ketchikan got almost 850,000 cruise visitors last year. This former logging town has come increasingly to depend on the big ships. The downtown streets lined with gift shops and jewelry stores make that apparent.
So the state chose a much more expensive crossing in a wider part of Tongass Narrows. The first span would be about 3,400 feet long and cross over from Revillagigedo Island, where Ketchikan sits, to the thick green forest and cliffs of Pennock Island, which splits Tongass Narrows.
That bridge would be 200 feet above high tide -- enough for a jumbo cruise ship to pass under. That's higher than the Brooklyn Bridge. It's nearly as high as the Frontier Building in Midtown Anchorage.
No offramp is now planned for Pennock, which has a few homes and some Native burial sites. That could change if Pennock residents decide they want it, borough planners said.
The second span would run about 2,500 feet from Pennock to Gravina.
This scenic isle has a gentle, forested coastline and mountainous spine. It's populated by deer, black bears, a wolf pack and a scattering of people.
Gravina Island covers 61,404 acres, of which the borough holds 7 percent. The U.S. Forest Service is by far the biggest landowner, controlling 64 percent, followed by the state. There are pockets of private land along the coast, including a 33-acre parcel assessed at $244,600 and partly owned by the governor's wife, Nancy Murkowski. She said her father bought the land in 1938 and it was deeded to her and her three siblings.
Stephen Reeve, Gravina project coordinator for the borough, said about 1,700 acres of borough, state and private land could be developed over the next decade when wetlands, steep terrain and demand are factored in.
By the standards of Southcentral or Interior Alaska, that may not sound like much. For comparison, Far North Bicentennial Park in Anchorage is about 4,000 acres.
But Reeve said that Gravina's 1,700 acres is five or six times more land than can be developed for industrial use on Ketchikan's home island.
"For Southeast standards, that is a massive amount of land," Reeve said.
Reeve said he would expect residential, recreational, commercial and industrial development on the island. There is logging planned for Gravina Island, but Reeve said that would happen anyway.
Kent Miller, an economist in Ketchikan, said he thinks the criticism of the bridge is based on people not understanding the potential. The bridge could help the airport expand and transport out local products, fish in particular.
Other development could include fish processing and cold storage facilities as well as wood products manufacturing, he said.
"I really see a built up demand for a wide range of expansion on Gravina and a bridge will facilitate that," Miller said. "It's not unreasonable, in my opinion, to see Ketchikan's population doubling in the next say, 20 years, if it has an opportunity to increase its lands base."
Richard Andrew, owner of the 1920s era Gilmore Hotel in downtown Ketchikan, was skeptical about that. He questioned how fast the land will be developed with most of the land controlled by the federal Forest Service.
But a lot of people in town are in favor of the bridge, he said, and it would bring construction dollars.
SOME DISSENT
Across the gray waters of Tongass Narrows, Mike Sallee was unloading supplies onto his Gravina Island homestead from a skiff. He has a one-man sawmill on the Ketchikan side but has lived at least part of each year on Gravina since he was 9 years old. His pioneering mother decided in 1956 that it would be a good place for her, Sallee and his brother to live and raise chickens.
Sallee said construction dollars would be fleeting and much would leave Ketchikan. Besides, he said, why do "chamber of commerce types" think an ever-expanding population is such a great thing? Sallee said he is running for the borough assembly and would like to fight the bridge funding in the Legislature.
Back across the Narrows, Colleen Scanlon said people need to be visionaries and look to the future. Her grandfather, Paul Wingren, pushed for many years for the bridge.
Her family has been long known in town for its grocery business. She now does administrative work for Pacific Log and Lumber, which has a mill on Gravina.
"I'm getting tired of this bridge to nowhere stuff," Scanlon said.
Reporter Sean Cockerham can be reached at scockerham@adn.com. |
