A state-city committee added the Knik Arm bridge to its list of long-range highway projects Thursday, rolling over objections by Mayor Mark Begich that soft language in the approval means big trouble for Anchorage down the road.
The original proposal guaranteed bridge-builders would connect it directly to the Ingra / Gambell couplet in 10 years.
Instead, the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority and private investors will only have to build the connection "as needed."
Begich described that language as "wishy-washy, mealy-mouth kind of talk." He said it means the connection might not be built, if ever, until traffic congestion in downtown Anchorage becomes unbearable.
"The people who will suffer ... are the people who live in this town," he said.
The final vote was 4-1, with Begich the only no.
Adding the bridge to the official transportation plan frees about $94 million in federal funding that has already been set aside for it. Bridge supporters say they hope to have the span built by 2010, but a lot more has to happen before construction can begin.
The biggest challenge is money.
The authority is at least $500 million short of the actual cost, and is counting on groups of foreign and American finance and construction companies to come up with the cash and a design. In return for building it, the private investors would operate the bridge and collect tolls for up to 50 years.
Begich and Tom Chapple, air quality director with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, voted against the "as needed" wording for the connector, and Begich was so incensed that he voted against putting the bridge in the plan at all. Chapple and the three other AMATS committee members -- Assemblymen Dan Sullivan and Chris Birch and state regional transportation director Gordon Keith voted for it.
The "as needed" wording was suggested by Keith, who said it would cause "major, major problems" to build the connector before a planned highway-to-highway connection between the Seward and Glenn highways is finished.
Begich disagreed. Major road construction in the area set to begin this summer would fix that, he said.
Keith and others also said tying the connector to the bridge project could make it harder to get private financiers behind the bridge.
Begich argued that traffic at core downtown intersections during peak commuting hours "is a mess today." Not making the bridge authority build the Ingra / Gambell connection by 2017 will force even more traffic downtown onto A Street and C Street and make congestion much worse, he said.
"They don't mind, on the bridge, (to build it now) even though there's no population over there to use it," Begich said later. "But here's this Gambell / Ingra connection that obviously we'll need no matter what."
Sullivan said Begich was "far overdramatic" about the change. The AMATS committee will have other chances to address the need for a connection between the bridge and Gambell / Ingra, he said.
"This plan is reviewed every three years and 2017 is a decade away."
The bridge project still must be approved by the Federal Highway Administration, and permits for it must be issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
A batch of other restrictions recommended by the Assembly remain. No construction can begin until the financing plan is complete, environmental issues have been addressed, and plans to mitigate the effects of building a road to the bridge through Government Hill are settled.
Daily News reporter Don Hunter can be reached at dhunter@adn.com.
