Despite the hammering that it took in the 2008 election campaigns, the “bridge to nowhere” is still on the table, according to a recent Washington Post article. The bridge would connect Anchorage to a nearby peninsula, with a price tag estimated at $4 billion by one financial analyst, and a toll price of $5 per crossing.
“The dispute is all about projections, population and real estate. Although [peninsula] Mat-Su’s population jumped 42 percent in the past decade, making it the third-most-populated place in Alaska, that’s not saying much. There are 89,000 people living in the borough, which stretches over an area nearly as large as West Virginia. Most of the residents live near highways to Anchorage or in places such as Wasilla, where the commute to Anchorage would be 12 minutes faster on existing land routes than it would be via the new bridge.”
Sarah Palin has not been a supporter of the bridge, noting in 2007: “If the feds can’t fund these projects that have minimal public support, then they’re not going to happen.”