With or without 'bridge to nowhere,' Gravina highway is a go
By Melissa Campbell
June 3, 2007
Ketchikan's airport ferry docks in the Southeast city. A much maligned bridge to Gravina Island and the airport won't be a reality any time soon, but a road will be built as part of the original funding package that included the bridge. ARCHIVE PHOTO/Melissa Campbell/AJOC
The state Department of Transportation has awarded a $25.7 million contract to build a highway on Gravina Island. The 3.2-mile road is being funded as part of a $48 million earmark that survived after a larger federal earmark was pulled from federal legislation for the Gravina Island Bridge.
Formerly called the Gravina Access Highway, the road was originally funded to provide access to the proposed bridge, which was also provided funding in the 2005 transportation legislation, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act, spearheaded by Alaska Rep. Don Young.
The Gravina bridge earmark, as well as another earmark for the Knik Arm Bridge in Anchorage, totaled more than $200 million each, and prompted a national outcry that money was being wasted to build bridges to areas with nothing on the other side.
The earmarks were pulled for these so-called “bridges to nowhere,” and much of the money was redistributed to other Alaska projects.
But the Gravina Highway money remained on the federal earmark list, and so it had to be spent on this project or it would have been lost, said Malcolm Menzies, the state Department of Transportation's Southeast regional director.
Gov. Sarah Palin should give the money back, said Lois Epstein, of the Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, a nonprofit group.
“My proposal to the Palin administration would be that it's a good idea to return this money. It would be a responsible, ethical step for the administration to take,” Epstein said. “She should send a message there is a new regime in Alaska, a new administration. In a very public way, she should say, ‘We've had projects that had not been of good use and are looking at them, but we are responsible now.'”
The contract has been signed, however. The design/build project was awarded to Kiewit Pacific of Anchorage.
The Gravina Island Highway consists of a 3.2-mile gravel roadway from the intersection of the Airport Access and Lewis Reef roads near the Ketchikan International Airport to an area approaching the West Channel of Tongass Narrows.
Work on the two-lane road includes the site grading, embankment, two bridges — over Government and Gravina creeks — as well as drainage structures and other improvements. Pedestrian access will also be added.
The road will eventually be paved with the remaining earmarked money, Menzies said. It is expected to be completed in the fall of 2008.
Of the $48 million earmark, some $33 million has already been spent. Part of the money went to pay for environmental work and purchasing right-of-way access. Another $10 million will build an underpass under the airport runway.
The road will open the area for development, which would offer more justification for additional money to build the bridge, Menzies said.
“The congressional delegation thought we needed it,” Menzies said. “If you look at Juneau and Douglas Island, Douglas would never have developed but for the funding for that bridge. Gravina could become like Douglas.”
Some question whether the project should continue since funding for the bridge is so uncertain.
“The project does lack for complete financing,” Menzies said. “Realistically, the department doesn't think any more earmarks will come through for the bridge. It's always possible to get general fund money to build it. It will be a struggle to get the money to build the bridge.”
To Outsiders, Alaska has a nature of entitlement to federal money, Epstein said.
“Other states are resentful of Alaska,” Epstein said. “(Palin) has canceled a couple of projects, and the decisions she makes have repercussions beyond Alaska. We would lose some money, but it would be an investment in her administration for the future. It would show that Alaska is responsible. We will be seen as more worthy later.”
Alaska for years received more federal money per capita than any other state. Many industry officials believe federal money will begin to slow as the wars in the Middle East continue.
The current estimate for the bridge is about $348 million, Menzies said. Taking inflation into account, the cost could rise to nearly $400 million in the next five years.
Alternative options could bring the price down to about $250 million, and discussions are underway to re-evaluate the plan, Menzies said.
“If you listen to Don Young, if you talk to the community, they are going to have that bridge,” Menzies said.
The running joke in Ketchikan is that it's four miles long, one mile wide and six blocks high. The community has about 40 miles of roads, and limited on the space to grow by mountain ranges and water.
The Gravina road will open more than 1,000 acres for potential development on the island, Menzies said. Land there is stable and flat.
Currently housed on the island are a saw mill and a few home sites and cabins. Menzies said there are no year-round residents.
The state last fall completed a $2 million road project to connect the saw mill operations to a road near the airport.
The state also has about $8 million in state general fund money for a new ferry to move people between the airport and Ketchikan. Bids should go out this summer.
