Alaska Outlines Bridges' Spending Plan

Alaska Outlines Bridges' Spending Plan

By RACHEL D'ORO
Associated Press Writer

December 16, 2005, 12:47 AM EST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska's governor outlined a plan Thursday to spend almost $200 million on two bridge projects, including one dubbed the "Bridge to Nowhere" that triggered sharp criticism across the nation.

Congress recently dropped its funding provisos for the bridges in Ketchikan and Anchorage, but let the state keep the money and left it up to state officials to figure out how to spend it.

Gov. Frank Murkowski in a budget proposal Thursday said he wants to use $91 million for the Ketchikan project in the fiscal year beginning in July.

The two-bridge project would connect the town's airport to Revillagigedo Island, where most of the 13,000 residents of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough live.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-alaska-bridges,0,4132743.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

projects as a sign of their cutting spending to pay for Katrina (but the cuts for programs for the needy are real cuts) ?

They voted in a new capital, wanted a fence on both sides of the road from Anchorage to Fairbanks to keep moose of the road( about 400 miles) and YES a bridge over Cook Inlet to go to some Indian villages. Millions for about 35 people. I guess the state had so much money they did not know what to do with it and they also got a lot from the feds. in the 80's also. It is a state that has always rode on the cart as the tax payers pulled the GD thing. And have got away with it.:crazy:

Can't remember where but an article said that the island is heavily forested with old growth timber and the timber companies want to harvest and need a bridge to transport the timber. Is that true? Is that what the $200 million is for?

I guess the other 250 million needs to go to the oil industry..That seems where most of the states money goes these days...

funny how that works, huh?

Buying just enough Bridge to leave you hanging - $200 million for perhaps never to be finished bridges to no where ($93.6 million this fiscal year on a span linking Anchorage and the borough of Matanuska-Susitna - a possible $600 million project with only $229 million of funding in hand, and the Ketchikan project connecting the town's airport to Revillagigedo Island, where most of the 13,000 residents of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough live, that will require $315 million but has only the left overs from this years $200 million that exist after the Matanuska-Susitna bridge partial build $93.6 million is paid for).


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ALASKA_BRIDGES?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

Alaska Outlines Bridges' Spending Plan

By RACHEL D'ORO
Associated Press Writer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska's governor outlined a plan Thursday to spend almost $200 million on two bridge projects, including one dubbed the "Bridge to Nowhere" that triggered sharp criticism across the nation.

Congress recently dropped its funding provisos for the bridges in Ketchikan and Anchorage, but let the state keep the money and left it up to state officials to figure out how to spend it.

Gov. Frank Murkowski in a budget proposal Thursday said he wants to use $91 million for the Ketchikan project in the fiscal year beginning in July.

The two-bridge project would connect the town's airport to Revillagigedo Island, where most of the 13,000 residents of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough live.

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