Vote essentially a death sentence for Knik Arm Bridge

The Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions Policy Committee voted on a compromise to push the Knik Arm Bridge to a decade in the future.

Whether you favor the bridge or not, the decision is not a compromise — it’s a death sentence, pure and simple.

Anybody who believes the bridge will be cheaper to build 10 years from now is not well in the head. And does anybody want to predict that the fortunes of the state and nation are going to improve dramatically in the next 10 years?

The reason the bridge wasn’t built decades ago is because there was concern about the technological problems the tides and ice and earthquakes presented. The technology isn’t the bigger problem now. Look around the world and you will find far more challenging bridges built than one that would cross the Arm.

The compromise was a political decision pure and simple. The vote was rushed through so an acting mayor in Anchorage with less than a week left on his temporary job could cast his vote against it, rather than a full-time mayor who would have voted for it.

It was a noble effort by mayors Purcell and Rupright to try to get the vote overruled because they believe there wasn’t sufficient public notice before the vote. Both said Anchorage officials seemed to think there’s only one end to the bridge. The mayors felt Valley communities should have a say. Alas, the mayors were barking in the wind.

But let’s look at the half-full glass.

Anchorage people won’t spread themselves out here and bring the attendant hand-holding they need from local government. The first snowfall and they would be whining about why their street out Knik way isn’t plowed. And god forbid they have to drive on dirt to get to a highway. And then there would be the noise dog kennels and snowmachines make at all hours.

Nah, it’s better they stay in their bowl and suffocate together.

In the meantime, all those Anchorage folks who moved out here because they could have a better home for less need to get to town to work.

Something needs to be done to ease the traffic on the Glenn — the only practical way to get from here to there.

Light rail is light years away. The ferry will serve only a few.

Now that Anchorage officials have nixed one method of getting people back and forth, the onus is on them to now come up with a better solution. Any bets on how soon that comes to be?