Republican Johansen pushing "Bridge to Nowhere" dinosaur

"Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in" Michael Corleone from "The Godfather"

By Dennis Zaki

The bridge project that will not die is back in the news again. Ketchikan Republican Kyle Johansen didn't get governor Sarah Palin's memo last year - "Dude, the bridge is like, dead."

Johansen, a co-chairman of the House Transportation Committee, is behind House Bill 314, asking the state to sell $45 million in bonds to partially pay for a bridge across the Tongass Narrows to Gravina Island. Gravina is an island with around 50 residents.

The portion of the money for the bridge in HB 314 is to come from a package of $170 million in bonds for transportation projects statewide. Alaskans would be able to vote on the bill.

The "Bridge to Nowhere" has many critics including Republicans Sarah Palin and presidential candidate John McCain.

Last year Palin said Ketchikan residents deserve a better way to reach the airport but "the $398 million bridge is not the answer."

"We will continue to look for options for Ketchikan to allow better access to the island," Palin said last year.

Senator John McCain said that Congress should share some of the blame for the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota, because of the diversion of money meant for transportation spending that goes to pet projects like the "Bridge to Nowhere". "Maybe, maybe the 200,000 people who cross that bridge every day would have been safer than spending 233 million of your tax dollars on a bridge in Alaska on an island with 50 people on it," he said, visibly upset. "What do you think we could have done with that $233 million that we spent to go to the bridge to nowhere - bridge to nowhere."

The bridge bonds most likely will be line-item vetoed off the bill two seconds after Palin picks up her pen.

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Related "Bridge to Nowhere" stories:

John McCain rips Ted Stevens' bridge to nowhere (8/4/07)

Godfather of Earmarks: The Fall of Don "Corleone" Young (2/4/08)

Watchdog group says Don Young is the reason Republicans have lost credibility (1/31/08)

Bridge to Nowhere costs skyrocket by $67 million (2/12/07)

Murkowski funneled taxpayer money to road for her home (8/8/07)