The Road to Nowhere
As we know, Sarah Palin said “thanks but no thanks” on the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. Or, rather, she favored the Bridge to Nowhere, attacked its critics, defended it publicly, and then when it became clear congress wouldn’t fund it she ended construction on the project and reallocated the funds to something else. But alongside the Bridge to Nowhere was a Road to Nowhere — or, more specifically, a road to the Bridge to Nowhere. As Paul Kiel explains Palin actually kept this $26 million project going even though, absent the bridge, it was completely useless. Why? Well it seems that unless she finished wasting your tax dollars and mine on this bridge, she would have had to have returned the money.
UPDATE: Back in 2006, Palin specifically defended the road in a debate. Faiz pulled the video:
This is pretty unremarkable stuff — putting picayune Alaska interests above national interests — but it certainly cuts against the image that Palin is trying to make.
26 Responses to “The Road to Nowhere”
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September 18th, 2008 at 11:32 am
And this woman defending a truly useless project by babbling about “progress” also claims they will be able to close the massive deficits caused by McCain’s tax plans not with any specific cuts, but rather by finding “efficiencies”. I may be going out on a limb, but I would have thought roads to bridges that don’t exist would kinda count as inefficient.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Whenever I hear that phrase all I can think of is the Talking Heads song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKqzayNo4Dk
September 18th, 2008 at 11:41 am
No love for Palin here, but a few considerations:
Leaving aside for a minute the hypocrisy of Palin’s position as a VP candidate on earmarks, the bridge actually goes to the airport that serves the nearby town, and lots of people need to fly to get places in Alaska. Think of it as a glorified bus stop.
Secondly, the only place for the town to grow is onto the island, since growth on the mainland is blocked by mountains.
Thirdly, once the bridge was killed, I believe they went with a ferry. Does the road not serve the ferry instead of the bridge?
September 18th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Er.. I think Matthew is not looking at the Big Picture here.
We NEED to build up the rural infrastructure — so people like him have an “evacuation corridor” after the derivatives crash turn the big Eastern Seaboard cities into dead zone through which cannibal zombies and Will Smith wander.
FIRST thing you need to do in your Relocation Training, Matthew, is to develop an appreciation of Merle Haggard music. That will open a lot of doors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkcsQ4H7WzU
September 18th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Dead cat bounce over — MS down 22 percent, GS down 13 percent
Some motherfucker greased the lifeline.
Heh heh heh. Don’t you just hate it when they do that?
September 18th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
“Roads to Nowhere” are how the rural people plan to divert the mass of urban refugees into “lines of drift”.
Kinda like those cattle chutes at the slaughterhouse.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
“when it became clear congress wouldn’t fund it”
Why do you say that? Congress DID fund it – Congress just removed the earmark requiring the state to use those funds for the BTN.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
The ferry is already in use and doesn’t need the Road to Nowhere. Considering that the ferry runs every 30 minutes and only costs $5.00 per adult, I think that probably adequately serves the area, considering the size of the population.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I’m no expert in this, and probably Googling would help us both. But, the airport construction began in 1969 and there’s always been water between Gravina Island and Ketchikan. So absent a bridge there’s presumably been a ferry there for years.
What I’ve heard is that the existing ferry runs a diagonal shot across between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. But since this isn’t an efficient place to build a bridge, the bridge had to be located a long ways “up the road”. So getting to the airport would involve a substantial drive to the bridge, a bridge crossing, then a drive back to the airport. The total time required to make the drive was expected to be nearly as long as taking the ferry (or longer). And this was measured against the cost of building all of this roadway along with a bridge nearly the size of the Golden Gate. Even some of the locals were against it, and you have to take into account the fact that they weren’t even paying for it (or much of it).
September 18th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
What I’ve heard is that the existing ferry runs a diagonal shot across between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. But since this isn’t an efficient place to build a bridge, the bridge had to be located a long ways “up the road”.
Yep. Here’s the plan showing the ferry terminals and the bridge plan in relation to it. Here’s a sat photo of the ferry terminals. As you can see, it’s a short walk from the airport to the terminal.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Here’s an even better sat image, which shows the arduous 250yd walk from the airport terminal under a covered walkway to the ferry.
Look, ferries are part of life on parts of the northern west coast. You could conceivably bridge more of the various Gulf Islands of British Columbia, but it’s a silly idea to do so.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
How dare you let satellite images stand in the way of Progress!
September 18th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Nerdy dude with the bad hair for Vice President!
December 10th, 2008 at 10:55 am
A Washington State Ferry was held at the Bremerton dock after reports of a terrorist threat on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008. BREMERTON, Wash. – Washington state ferries between Seattle and Bremerton are moving
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