Knik Bridge proponents forge ahead

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Planners are moving forward with a project to build a bridge over the Knik Arm even though the Municipality of Anchorage is suing and the Legislature has not provided the state money for it.

The Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, or KABATA, is looking for a company to build the bridge. It sent out a request Thursday for companies to submit their qualifications for developer of the proposed bridge connecting Anchorage to land near Point MacKenzie in Mat-Su.

The authority's request says it would pick the developer in the summer or fall of next year, with construction starting in 2013 and completion within four years, according to a story in Friday's Anchorage Daily News.

The move pushing the project forward comes a week after the Municipality of Anchorage filed a lawsuit in an attempt to force the federal government to drop its approval of the project. The lawsuit says the road connecting the Anchorage side of the bridge would pass through the expanding Port of Anchorage and conflict with port operations.

Bridge supporters argue the project is needed to open up Mat-Su land for housing and industry, creating opportunities for economic development. But critics call it a boondoggle, and it was ridiculed as one of Alaska's two so-called "bridges to nowhere" when Congress provided initial money.

The authority says it has about $60 million of that federal and state money left, some of which it is using for its administrative costs and permits.

The authority is currently asking potential developers to submit their qualifications. The idea is to put between two and four companies on a "short-list" eligible to bid on the project. The authority says it will offer $2 million to each of the short-listed companies that don't get chosen as the developer.

In return, KABATA says it would get the rights to "ideas, techniques, concepts and approaches" included in the unsuccessful proposals.