Backers of controversial bridge seek to rename airport

ANCHORAGE - Let others sneer at Southeast Alaska's so-called "bridge to nowhere."

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You won't get any scorn from leaders in Ketchikan, the small port town at the receiving end of a two-bridge system to be funded by millions of federal dollars. To them, the project is a link to the future, delivered by Alaska's lone congressman, Republican Don Young, who chairs the House Transportation Committee.

Some Ketchikan leaders, in fact, want to rename the local airport after Young for all the federal money he's brought to the area during his 32 years in office. But getting the most attention is the $223 million for a bridge that would connect the airport on Gravina Island to tiny Pennock Island, then to neighboring Revillagigedo Island where most of the 13,000 residents of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough live.

The airport is separated from its users by a quarter-mile-wide channel of water, forcing travelers to catch either of the two ferries or a water taxi.

"He's been very supportive of all our infrastructure projects," said Jack Shay, a member of the Ketchikan Borough Assembly who is pushing the idea to rename the airport to the Ketchikan Don Young International Airport. Anchorage's international airport was named after another veteran lawmaker, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, in 2000.

Critics in Alaska and the Lower 48 say the funds earmarked for the bridge and other projects - including a two-mile span from Anchorage to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough - in the federal transportation bill would be better spent on hurricane rebuilding efforts involving roads and bridges.

Activists in Alaska are trying to mobilize support for redistributing the estimated $450 million set aside for the Alaska bridges to areas ravaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

To that end, Gene Storm of Anchorage launched a grass-roots signature-gathering campaign last week called "Alaska's Bridge to Unity." So far, said Storm, the effort has garnered support from around the state, including Ketchikan, the largest city in the borough with 7,700 people. Storm plans to ultimately turn the signatures over to federal lawmakers.

"We are part of the United States and this is a national disaster that struck part of our family," he said. "Even if we'd like to have these bridges, let's do the right thing."

Shay said he would have no problem deferring the funds for a year if the money is instead used on Gulf Coast projects. But he disagrees with opponents who say the bridge is a boondoggle.

The airport is separated by Tongass Narrows from the town, which sits near the edge of another island. Scheduled ferries and water taxis now carry travelers back and forth from town.

"We've only been a state relatively short time, so we're way behind the other states," said Shay. "Don Young has been a great help catching us up with other states."

Young's chief of staff, Mike Anderson, said the congressman was humbled by the airport proposal. Young himself could not be reached for comment, but said in a prepared statement that the highway bill funds "projects making some of the basic connections between communities in Alaska that cities" outside the state have enjoyed for centuries.

"Because of its geographical location, Ketchikan has long been recognized as the 'Gateway to Alaska,"' Young wrote. "Yet the community is accessible only by air and sea and has run out of land."

The town - Alaska's entry port for northbound cruise ships - is literally out of room for expansion, said Glen Thompson, a borough assembly member. Thompson is lukewarm to the idea of renaming the airport at this time, saying officials should focus on airport budget shortfalls instead. But he said a bridge is essential for Ketchikan's well-being.

The town is seven blocks wide and eight miles long, backing up to forest and mountains. There's no place left to go but across the channel to Gravina - population 50 - which is relatively flat and prime real estate for development.

A road link between the two shores is crucial for growth, according to Thompson.

"We don't consider it a bridge to nowhere," he said. "We consider it a bridge to the future."