National spotlight has Ketchikan uncomfortable

Anchorage Daily News ^ | 09-18-05 | SEAN COCKERHAM

[akdonn]

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."

[akdonn]

Another prospective on the "Road to Nowhere" that actually links the town with its airport.

[Vigilanteman]

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.

A bridge costing about $24,000 per resident? While it is not quite the boondoggle it is billed to be, neither do I see a major inconvenience in taking the ferry to an airport. Even the $1,000,000 estimated annual maintainence cost of the bridge would pay for 125 trips per year for every resident of Ketchikan.

[Fog Nozzle]

I know! We could call it The Bridge To The 21st Century. Unless that name's already taken, I haven't Googled it.

[akdonn]

Actually, I've ridden this ferry many times. It can be kind of hairy when the wind is whipping through and the rain is sideways, but I think there is a need to develop the land around the airport because Ketchikan is boxed in by mountains. It's like alot of things in Alaska; we have to do what we can when we have the opportunity, because there may not be another chance for a long time.

[TexasTransplant]

When I was a 9 year old child I nearly made the trip to the island in 1/2 of a 55 gallon barrel a stick with an empty bleach bottle tied on each end and another stick to paddle with. Thing is the current got pretty stiff about half way.

This old guy in a rowboat rows out to meet me and drifted along side of me for awhile, just passing the time, conversing for awhile before he asked me if I would like a ride back to Ketchikan. Then he sank my little boat with an ease that (finally) scared me.

Back in those days I was as brave as a Louisiana Politician

[akdonn]

Wow. I've done some things like that myself; that is probably why Alaska has such a high death rate from boating accidents! Some of us luck out, and I think I'm a better boater because of such experiences over the years. (My 75 year old father and I just went fishing in Prince William Sound yesterday and got hit with some pretty stiff winds--but I have a great boat).

[TexasTransplant]

On Prince William Sound I was fishing with a friend on his boat and we got hit by a barge, nearly sunk us (he HAD a nice boat)

[PAR35]

Actually, I've ridden this ferry many times. It can be kind of hairy when the wind is whipping through and the rain is sideways,

And you think driving across a narrow bridge in those conditions would be relaxing?

[Vigilanteman]

I've gone across the Akashi Kaikyo Ohashi, largest suspension bridge in the world, linking Honshu with Awaji Island, millions on the Honshu side, thousands on the Awaji side. During typhoon-force winds and sideways rains, the bridge gets closed even though the water below has got to be at least 20 degrees warmer than the ocean current flowing through Ketchikan.

[akdonn]

Whoa, I think I know why you're in TEXAS!

[akdonn]

Relaxing???? Maybe in a Corvette. We live with the weather all of the time.

I'm not convinced Ketchikan needs the bridge, mind you.

[Redbob]

Tell me something about the people on that island:

Did somebody hold a gun to their heads and make them live there? I mean, it being so inconvenient and all?

And if they need the bridge so bad, how about they pay for it themselves?
They can't you say? Costs too much money?

How about when I need a new well drilled, I ask someone in Alaska to poney up the 15 grand? Who do I contact about that?

[Eska]

I just wish 98% of Alaska's land wasn't owned by the govt. Imagine if only 2% of your state's land mass was in the private sector. Fed control stops economic growth. So if they get a grant or matching funds, good for them.

Don't matter that Russia sold the US a Brooklyn Bridge way back when.

[ALASKA]

Actually, I've ridden this ferry many times. It can be kind of hairy when the wind is whipping through and the rain is sideways......

I ride this ferry back and forth to the airport every 3 weeks and have done so for 10 years. I've been on it in every kind of weather, and though the weather may be hairy, the ride NEVER is. This bridge is TOTALLY un-neccessary. I really hope the money goes to something else....it is not needed here.

[akdonn]

You don't want to know anything about the people on that island, so why don't you just make your point instead of trying to sound like dick tracy?

Lots of people live on islands all over Alaska, and they choose to do that. It's a good kind of life, actually, but not too many of them live on Gravina Island near Ketchikan. That is the island where the airport is located. As a matter of fact, Gov. Murkowski's wife also owns a parcel of land there. I don't think that has anything to do with the bill to build a bridge there, however.

IF you bothered to read the entire story I posted, you would see that everybody in Ketchikan doesn't think they need a bridge. Also, if you bothered to read my previous posts you might also know that I am not advocating for the bridge but simply posted it as a matter of interest.

And, because it rains all the time in Ketchikan YOU could move there and you wouldn't need a well...

[RTINSC]

Everyone compalined about the original "bridge to nowhere" in 1956. The 26 mile bridge across Lake Ponchartrain. 13 years later a second bridge was built because of all the development it created.

[conservative in nyc]

I've actually read parts of the environmental impact statement for the bridge. The bridge may be a boondoggle, but it was a well-thought-out boondoggle. I can only imagine how much was paid to consultants studying the alternatives.

I don't know where the ADN got it's $1 million per year maintenance figure. The EIS's annual maintenance cost for the alternative to be built was $110,000. The current ferry costs $2.1 million per year to operate (but since they charge people and cars to transit, some of these costs are presumably recouped). The three studied additional ferry alternatives were expected to cost about $5 million per year to operate (in addition to the cost of building new facilities and buying and maintaining new boats). They even studied building a tunnel instead of a bridge, which was deemed too costly.

Not blocking cruise ship or seaplane traffic was a key determinant in building the more costly bridge alternative. The other proposed bridges were too low for cruise ship traffic, too close to the main Ketchikan seaplane base, or too expensive.

[conservative in nyc]

Where was the airport before it was on Gravina Island? Did people just take seaplanes to Juneau?

Even today, there are far more seaplane operations per day (241) than flights at the International Airport (44). Alaska Airline's 737s are probably a bit bigger than your average seaplane, though.

[Zetman]

I'll be watching this story with interest. My friends just moved to Ketchikan. She is going to be a doctor up there. He sent me photos of the water view they have from their new house. Very nice!!

I am not sure what my friend's opinion of this bridge might be, but from my view here in the SF Bay area, I say let them have their bridge. After seeing how the government dorks around with boondoggles down here, I think this bridge in Ketchikan should be the least of our worries. How come the boondoggles down in the liberal areas never get held up for ridicule as a "something" to "nowhere"?? I can think of all sorts of things in California that can (and should) be mocked, as opposed to this bridge. In my opinion, they deserve it a lot more than the stupid liberals here in California deserve anything!! California is too busy giving free public education and medical treatment to illegal aliens from Mexico, thank YOU Feinstein and Boxer.

Of course, Ketchikan is still cut off from the rest of the world. Even with this bridge, the only ways to reach it are by boat or by air. My friend in Ketchikan tells me that there is an even longer term plan to eventually build a road from Ketchikan to Canada, so that they can be connected to the North American highway system. However, that would take even MORE bridges, and probably BILLIONS of dollars. Hence, it will be interesting to see how the mainstream news media reacts to THAT one when the time comes!! Maybe there will be a blizzard in Miami (due to global warming) which we will need to spend THOSE dollars upon instead!!

[ALASKA]

Where was the airport before it was on Gravina Island?

Not sure. The seaplane # is just an average of the privately owned planes taking off per day.