Bridge must safely merge with existing road system

Criticism of the Knik Arm Crossing project was fueled recently by news regarding funding for the controversial 2-mile bridge that would connect Anchorage with Point MacKenzie.

For years now, that project has been pitched as a public-private partnership, one that would be paid for through a private entity that would recoup the immense costs in borrowed money — $1 billion by a lot of estimates — through toll revenue.

The merits of public-private partnerships are numerous. Such partnerships have become a popular means in recent years of getting large projects off the drawing board nationwide, since they combine the considerable might of the public sector with the efficiency of the private sector.

In the case of the proposed bridge across Knik Arm, the PPP certainly made the project more palatable to more Alaskans.

But the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, which is overseeing the project, told the Legislature that to move the project forward further, it would need to sweeten the pot, so to speak, for the private sector. For the partnership to work, KABATA says, the state would need to guarantee a certain amount of revenue and pay the private entity for any shortfalls in projected toll revenue.

In his budget announcement earlier this month, Gov. Sean Parnell headed in that direction, saying he wants the project to take a more traditional funding route, to use state instead of private financing.

This raises new questions about the massive infrastructure project, not the least of which centers on whether traffic projections — and the revenue stream that traffic would produce through tolls — were overly rosy. On its surface, the state taking on a larger financial stake in the bridge may seem like a scary prospect, but public dollars — either local, state or federal tax dollars — are the typical funding source for public infrastructure projects. It’s how the rest of the bridges and roads in Alaska were funded.

While questions need to be asked — and answered — this change in funding does not necessarily mean the project is any more, or less, viable.

In addition to providing a new transportation artery, the bridge also would be part of a larger effort to alleviate traffic on the Glenn Highway and shorten the distance between Anchorage and Fairbanks.

The Parks Highway was upgraded during the construction of the trans-Alaska Pipeline System to serve as the “road to the bank,” the North Slope oil fields. This piece of infrastructure remains a backbone that fuels resource development from the Mat-Su to the North Slope. A bridge across the Knik Arm to Point MacKenzie, Port MacKenzie itself and the new rail extension are similarly planned as new tools to lift other resource development projects toward production. The bridge’s potential effect on commerce — especially related to resource extraction and getting exports to tidewater — could be immense.

Our concern remains that project plans don’t address the traffic issues the bridge stands to create; specifically on Knik-Goose Bay Road. But we don’t see this as an insurmountable issue. It is our highest hope that a solution can be found that will fulfill all the potential the bridge holds without unduly burdening state or local resources.