Knik Bridge Boondoggle

Thirteen years ago, Representative Don Young inserted a $223 million earmark to build a bridge from Point McKenzie to Anchorage, across Knik Arm. Alaska has always depended on massive federal investment for infrastructure, but this project was different: No accurate analysis could ever justify the (minimum) $1.5 billion cost for the bridge, and federal officials have repeatedly rejected loans to build it. After a decade of expanding community opposition and squandered resources by the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA), Governor Walker shut down the project in 2016. This year, state Senate Republicans added $4.5 million in capital funding for the project, which House Democrats reduced to $2.5 million. The capital budget is on Governor Walker’s desk, and he has the opportunity to line item veto this $2.5 million zombie project.

Megaprojects can and should be a positive force for economic development in Alaska. For example, redevelopment of Gambell and Ingra Streets through Fairview, consistent with community council design recommendations, is long overdue. The Port of Anchorage is in dire need of rehabilitation to stay functional. The Knik Arm Bridge is entirely different--the only positive purpose it would serve is short term job creation for construction workers, which would be the case for any major construction project. After that, it would simply divert development from downtown Anchorage to the Mat-Su, further hollowing out downtown while damaging the historic neighborhood of Government Hill. But all these negative impacts are theoretical: The bridge will never be built. KABATA--the bureaucracy that has absorbed all the waste--has only been able to promote the bridge based on flawed and in some cases dishonest assumptions. For example, KABATA has claimed that tolls can pay for the bridge, but assumed four lanes of toll revenue for construction costs to build a two lane road. Sky-high estimates of vehicle traffic were predicated on estimates that the population of the Mat-Su would reach 250,000 within a decade, an absurd assumption in light of Alaska’s declining population. Fundamentally, the Knik Arm Bridge does not serve a public purpose, though it would certainly enrich landowners near Point McKenzie. For better or worse, there are clear criteria for funding federal projects, and as seven federal rejections have shown, the Knik Arm Bridge will not be funded through an open and transparent process. Now that Congressional Republicans have eliminated earmarks and Don Young is no longer Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman, it is implausible that any billion dollar earmarks will pay for the bridge.

Governor Walker should veto the $2.5 million in Knik Arm Bridge funding, since it would only prolong bureaucratic paper-shuffling for a project whose demise was well-deserved. The state has already spent $100 million on the project, approximately $136 per Alaska resident, and the project is less likely to move forward today than when Don Young got the earmark. Given the state’s budget situation, our limited capital budget dollars should be invested in construction projects that will actually get built. There are pressing needs throughout Anchorage and in other communities across the state, from deteriorating roads to depressed highway corridors in desperate need of redevelopment. The Knik Arm Bridge zombie boondoggle is a vestige of another era--a time of federal earmarks, flush state finances, and a growing state population. Now that state finances and political realities have killed the bridge, it’s time to stop wasting money on a dead project and shift that money to much-needed projects (and much-needed construction jobs) that will improve our community’s economy and quality of life while.