Debunking bridge myths

In case you missed it, Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright was featured in an article on Aug. 4 in Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

The subject of the Knik Arm Bridge was brought up. Mayor Rupright stated that the Knik Arm Bridge could be our Golden Gate Bridge, with Anchorage being Oakland and Wasilla being San Francisco, or vice versa. His statements insinuated that the Knik Arm Bridge will connect Wasilla to Anchorage; obviously it will not, not even close. The closest it will be is 40 miles away in Point MacKenzie, at the end of a very dangerous two-lane road.

The mayor seems to have a grand vision for Wasilla, and that is admirable, but a bridge to Point MacKenzie benefiting Wasilla? The benefits to Wasilla would be minimal. The true benefit will be to Anchorage developers who are yearning for large parcels of vacant, cheap land in order to build more housing and, I assume, some industrial development, in whatever form that may take. I am not opposed to development. I am, however, opposed to elected officials pinning false hopes on the general public and promoting falsehoods in the guise of facts. Among these are:

Myth: The bridge will cut the commute time to Anchorage in half.

Fact: The commute will be approximately the same, except you will have to pay a toll when you cross the bridge, further adding to the cost of your commute.

Myth: The bridge will not cost the state any money to construct.

Fact: Recently, the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA) requested approximately $150 million for construction. We can probably expect that number to rise as Congress eliminates discretionary spending from the federal budget.

Myth: Revenue generated from the tolls will cover expenditures.

Fact: The last estimate from the state suggests a little more than $8.8 million in revenue, but expenditures would likely reach around $43 million. That is around $35 million that the state will have to appropriate to keep the bridge open. This is approximately what it cost to resurface a large portion of the Glenn Highway, $35 million worth of transportation repair work that will go unfinished because of lack of funds.

What Mayor Rupright and bridge advocates fail to acknowledge, or perhaps understand, is that the reason the Golden Gate Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge and other large bridges were built was because the ferry systems that were in place became extremely inadequate to handle the volume of commuters. You use a ferry system, and when it is unable to meet your needs, you build a bridge. What the mayor and other advocates want to do is build a roof before there are walls to support it.

Have we all forgotten there is a $78 million ferry docked in Ketchikan ready for our use if Anchorage would only pick a site to build a dock for it? Let’s use the ferry for now. After all, the U.S. taxpayers, including you and I, were nice enough to purchase it. Let us see what kind of volume of traffic is generated by its use. Let us use what we have now to better understand the feasibility for future projects.

The cost of the bridge is approaching the $750 million mark, and more than likely will rise beyond that. This is an extremely dangerous amount to spend with little or no guarantee of its real need. We do need infrastructure development, we need our roads improved, we rank 21st in the nation for the worst bridges, we need them fixed. It seems we have more repair work than we can handle as it is. If we build this bridge a number of those projects would go unfunded.

Let’s be honest, this bridge is not for Wasilla, it is for Anchorage. The bridge will, however, create an entirely new community on the Port MacKenzie side if it is built, having little to do with Wasilla. Therefore we should consider that this new community will have to be developed from the ground up and the Mat-Su Borough will have to pay a majority of those costs.

Are you ready to shoulder that new burden? I am a construction worker. Working on infrastructure development and repair is how I pay my mortgage and take care of my family, just like thousands of others in the Southcentral region. In spite of this, however, I believe it is a time to be fiscally cautious on how we spend our transportation monies. There is no shortage of projects that need to be completed in our area. Should we not concentrate on those before undertaking a project that will immediately put the state in a financial hole? We have only so many resources to get it right.

Lastly Mr. Mayor, in order to reach Oakland from San Francisco you would take the Bay Bridge, not the Golden Gate. Taking the Golden Gate will take you farther away from Oakland, much as the Knik Arm Bridge would do for Wasilla, both literally and figuratively.

Blake Merrifield has filed his letter of intent to run for the state House of Representatives from Wasilla.