With or without 'bridge to nowhere,' Gravina highway is a go

With or without 'bridge to nowhere,' Gravina highway is a go
By Melissa Campbell
Alaska Journal of Commerce
June 3, 2007

Ketchikan's airport ferry docks in the Southeast city. A much maligned bridge to Gravina Island and the airport won't be a reality any time soon, but a road will be built as part of the original funding package that included the bridge.

The state Department of Transportation has awarded a $25.7 million contract to build a highway on Gravina Island. The 3.2-mile road is being funded as part of a $48 million earmark that survived after a larger federal earmark was pulled from federal legislation for the Gravina Island Bridge.

Gov. Sarah Palin should give the money back, said Lois Epstein, of the Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, a nonprofit group.

"My proposal to the Palin administration would be that it's a good idea to return this money. It would be a responsible, ethical step for the administration to take,” Epstein said. “She should send a message there is a new regime in Alaska, a new administration. In a very public way, she should say, ?We've had projects that had not been of good use and are looking at them, but we are responsible now."

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With or without 'bridge to nowhere,' Gravina highway is a go