Governor flies in for ceremony; officials say project cost less than removal would have
Ignoring a national outcry over Alaska's ambitious plans for building "bridges to nowhere," Gov. Frank Murkowski flew to Cordova last week and cut the ribbon on a $19 million bridge project for a road leading into a dead-end thicket of alders.
The historic Million Dollar Bridge across the Copper River resumed carrying traffic this summer after a year-long rebuilding job. Traffic is expected to remain light for the near future, local officials say -- mainly the occasional hiker or river rafter. But a Cordova man is building a small lodge north of the bridge, so traffic may increase, they say.
State and local officials say there were important reasons nevertheless for rebuilding the picturesque steel bridge, which was completed in 1910 for a now-defunct railroad. The bridge was badly damaged by the 1964 earthquake and a 1995 flood. Engineers said its steel girders were in danger of collapsing into the icy brown swirls of the Copper River.
Rebuilding the bridge was far cheaper than cutting it into pieces and removing it would have been, they say. Even worse would have been trying to retrieve the twisted scraps from the river if it were to collapse.
"We have accomplished two major goals with this very worthwhile project," Murkowski said in a press release. "We have stabilized and preserved the bridge negating the need for an expensive and difficult removal project and we have created easier access to recreational opportunities on the west side of the Copper River."
The bridge is 49 road miles northeast of Cordova. A gravel road extends a mile or so north from the bridge, ending amid alders at a washed-out culvert. There are no plans at present for extending the road toward the canyon and glacier to the north.
Cordova Mayor Tim Joyce said the bridge itself will be a tourist attraction. "A piece of Alaska history got put back together," he said.
The project involved lifting a fallen span, rebuilding damaged piers and paving the bridge. Work was completed several months ago. It was funded 80 percent with federal highway money, the governor's press release said. The state spent $3 million-plus on the rebuilding project.
The Million Dollar Bridge was an engineering marvel in its day, one of the first steel bridges of its kind. Built at a cost of $1.5 million (close to $30 million in today's dollars), the Copper River and Northwestern Railway bridge carried copper ore from Kennicott to port in Cordova.
It is listed on the National Register for Historic Places and the Historic American Engineering Record.
The railroad was torn out in the 1930s. The 1,550-foot bridge was converted for motor vehicle traffic in 1958, the state said. The great quake of 1964 dropped the northernmost of four spans into the river.
Since then, the half-fallen bridge has had a certain romantic mystique, though a patchwork span of cable and I-beams and planks allowed cars to resume crossing the river.
"It was kind of a hair-raising drive," Joyce said. "It was not something I would have considered doing regularly."
Preparations for rebuilding the bridge started under former Gov. Tony Knowles after a 1995 flood pounded the replacement pier supports with floating trees and possibly icebergs from nearby Miles Glacier.
Work began last year on the project.
Since then, however, Alaska has been the subject of blistering comments about its bridge projects. With Alaska Rep. Don Young as House Transportation Committee chairman, the state received more than $500 million in the latest highway bill for new bridges from Ketchikan to Gravina Island and from Anchorage across Knik Arm.
While many Alaska politicians defended the undertakings as opening new country for development, the projects were derided as "bridges to nowhere" by budget watchdogs, rival politicians and press accounts. The Times of London sniffed that the Ketchikan bridge was a "massive and otiose improvement."
Under the circumstances, Murkowski could have shrunk back and let the Copper River bridge project pass unnoticed. Instead, he flew to Cordova on Tuesday to cut a yellow ribbon, give a short speech and issue a press release.
"In fact it does go somewhere. It opens up new country for recreational activity," Murkowski spokesman Mike Chambers said Wednesday. "Perhaps someday it will lead to new development activities."
Lurking in the background this week was the question of whether the bridge might someday lead to a highway out of Cordova.
An extension of the Copper River Highway has long ranked high on Alaska road builders' wish lists. But profoundly mixed feelings in Cordova about a highway link to the outside world kept such a project from being built. No serious effort has been undertaken since former Gov. Wally Hickel promoted the idea in 1992 -- though Murkowski has spoken favorably of the concept.
Among the crowd of 50 or so people at the bridge for Tuesday's ribbon-cutting were several sign-carrying protesters opposed to highway construction.
Chambers said he was not aware of any current state planning for a Copper River Highway.
Cordova mayor Joyce said he doubted the road would ever be built. Such a road would probably cost $250 million or more, he said, and couldn't be kept open in winter, when winds of 100 mph blast through the river canyon from the Interior. He recalled that the railroad battled 60-foot snowdrifts. Road builders would also face erosion from the constantly prowling Copper River -- a point acknowledged in 1992 by a Hickel transportation official.
"When you talk Copper River, you're talking the big leagues. You're not talking the Matanuska or Klutina," the official said.
Jennifer Gibbins, director of the Eyak Preservation Council, a local conservation group, said the old railroad bridge is probably not big enough to sustain a major road. So preserving the bridge didn't strike her as a sneaky way to keep the highway project alive.
"But I think some people definitely had questions about the necessity of this bridge to nowhere and the money that was spent on it," she said.
Gibbins said she thought a collapsed bridge would not have had to be removed from the Copper River. But Joyce disagreed, saying the industrial wreckage would probably have ended up in front of the Childs Glacier, a major tourist attraction for Cordova. State transportation officials also said a collapsed bridge would have to be removed, Chambers said.
Reporter Tom Kizzia can be reached at tkizzia@adn.com or in Homer at 907-235-4244.
