Gravina Island Bridge

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The Gravina Island Bridge was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects the city and borough of Ketchikan, Alaska, to the Ketchikan International Airport on Gravina Island.^[1]

[edit] History

The project had been met with fierce opposition.^[2] Local Ketchikan resident Charlie Arteaga labeled the project the "Bridge to Nowhere" in an interview with ABC's news program 20/20 in a story produced by Glenn Ruppel. It was cited by some as a typical example of pork barrel spending in the 2005 Transportation Equity Act.

Media coverage of the bridge issue had focused on the secondary purpose put forward by the State of Alaska's official documentation, that of providing road access to the Ketchikan International Airport, and had called into question the document's declared primary purpose — to provide access to developable lands on Gravina Island.^[3]

Statistics show that Ketchikan's airport is the second largest in Southeast Alaska after Juneau International Airport, accommodating over 200,000 passengers a year, while the ferry shuttles approximately a half million people in the same time period (as of December 2006).^[4]

The ferry, which costs US$5 per person and US$6 per vehicle (one way),^[5] runs to the island every 30 minutes for most of the year. During the peak tourist season (May–September), a ferry runs every 15 minutes.

According to USA Today, the bridge was to have been nearly as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge.^[6] Ketchikan's primary industry is tourism, so the bridge was designed to be tall enough to accommodate the cruise ships which frequent the Alaskan waters during the summer.

In October 2005, Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska became the object of strong media criticism when he opposed diverting the Gravina and Knik Arm Bridge funds to help aid recovery from Hurricane Katrina.^[7] In his speech on the Senate floor, Stevens threatened to quit Congress if the funds were removed from his state.^[8]

Congress dropped the specific allocation for the two bridges, but the amount of money appropriated to Alaska remained unchanged. In August 2007, Alaska's DOT stated that it was "leaning" toward alternative ferry options, citing bridge costs, despite having already received the funds from the federal government.^[9]

The city of Ketchikan has already begun to develop roads and a small amount of infrastructure for the island's inhabitants. However, residents continue to seek funding for the Gravina Island span.^[10]

The project was canceled on September 21, 2007 by Alaska governor Sarah Palin:^[11]

"Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is not the answer. Despite the work of our congressional delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Much of the public’s attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here. But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened."^[12]