Current Issues for Knik Arm Bridge

Knik Arm crossing project will benefit from more oversight

The Anchorage Daily News ran an editorial (view editorial here) supporting legislation that would require the state legislature and the public to have a say in any Knik Arm "bridge to nowhere" deal before it could be built. The legislation, SB 268 and HB 365 would require a 60 day review period and legislative approval. The Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA) is the state agency created in 2002 during the Murkowski administration to build a bridge to Knik Arm, which has been acting with almost no input from the public or from the Palin administration. KABATA is believed by many to have grossly underestimated the $600 million price tag for the project and the environmental impacts of the structure.

 

You can help by writing a letter to the editor in support of this legislation to create public accountability for KABATA.

 

Email your letter to letters@adn.com.

 

For more information contact saraellen@akcenter.org or visit http://www.aktransportation.org/.

 

Comments submitted on the Knik Arm Crossing EIS

 

Comments have been submitted on the Knik Arm Crossing Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on behalf of ACE and several other organizations. The final EIS falls short of the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. The EIS not only falls short of NEPA, but the bridge would not meet the needs of the Upper Cook Inlet region, and we thus urge the the Federal Highway Administration to select the No Action Alternative.

View the Comments Document here
            (PDF 38.3 KB)

 

Knik Arm "Bridge to Nowhere" agency could finally be accountable to Alaskans

Alaska State Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis and Representative Les Gara proposed a joint bill yesterday to require legislative approval and public review of any Knik Arm Bridge project before it could be built. Since the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority agency (KABATA) was created in 2002 during the Murkowski administration, this bureaucracy has burned through almost $40 million to study and rationalize for a bridge, despite national ridicule, dwindling federal support for transportation, and a tenuous world financial climate.

 

This legislation would require KABATA to operate with similar transparency and accountability that Governor Palin champions in the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) process, in terms of financing, how Alaskans will be affected, and the tolls to use the bridge. So far, KABATA has been vague with the public about the exact terms of the deal it can strike with a private investor who may not have our best interests at heart. In fact, when Anchorage Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins asked KABATA to see the draft request for proposal (RFP), he was turned down. This fact, taken with the disclosure by KABATA at a board meeting last fall that the private investors had made dozens of requests for changes to the RFP, leads us to wonder whether the bridge will help Alaskans as the agency claims, or help overseas investors at the expense of Alaskans.
 

Our elected officials, and we as individuals, must have a say in this project. Unlike an unnecessary plane, we can't put the bridge on eBay if it turns out to be a bad idea.

Full Anchorage Daily News story

 

 

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