CQ Politics: Palin Still in Favor of the Other Bridge to Nowhere

Getting a lot of play in the media and Sen. Obama's new TV commerical is the fact that Sarah Palin was for the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" before she was against it. But, as CQ Politics points out in an article in this week's edition, there is more than one "Bridge to Nowhere," and Palin is still in favor of the second one. 

The first Bridge to Nowhere is the one that gets all the attention. Offically called the Ketchikan-Gravina Island bridge, it was designed to link the City of Ketchikan, Alaska, population 7,368 to Gravina Island, home to about 50 residents and more important, Ketchikan's airport. A low-rise bridge across the water wouldn't do, because it would prevent cruise ships loaded with tourists from using the harbor and thus ending their lucrative port calls. The solution: A $398 million high-level bridge linking the two islands, paid for in part by a $223 million federal earmark. After this massive earmark came to light in part because of the efforts of Senate Democrats (and GOPer Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who despite being slightly to the right of Adolf Hitler on social issues, does a fine job of being a deficit hawk), Gov. Palin cancelled the bridge project but, more importantly, kept all that federal cash.

The second Bridge to Nowhere, which Palin is still in favor of, is the proposed Knik Arm bridge. The Knik Arm bridge, which would span the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet, would be more than twice as expensive, and, because of the location of Elmendorf AFB on the best possible routing for the bridge, would cut through a historic neighborhood in Anchorage where local residents are fiercely opposed. 

Sarah Palin stil supports this Bridge to Nowhere, because it and highway attached to it just might shorten the commute of residents in her hometown of Wasilia who travel to Anchorage. Currently, they have to drive around the Knik Arm to get to Anchroage, lengthing their commutes. But is it really worrth $800 million to ease the commutes of a town of 7,025 residents?