Should we build a bridge across Knik Arm?

“Knik Arm bridge critics question population estimates.” To view this 8/6/10 KTUU story, please click here.

To see the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority project presentation, please click here.

Comments on a draft version of the presentation delivered to the KABATA Board of Directors on April 29, 2010 from:

• Jamie Kenworthy, financial analyst, please click on this file: boardmtgtestjk410.
• Lois Epstein, Alaska Transportation Priorities Project Director, please click on this file: kabbd410.

By a unanimous vote, the Mat-Su Assembly passed a resolution supporting the Knik Arm Bridge on April 6, 2010 with several key conditions that must be met.

To view Resolution 10-28, please click here.

The language of the resolution’s key conditions follows:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Borough Assembly supports the Knik Arm Bridge conditioned upon the receipt of federal or state funds to provide for needed public infrastructure on the Matanuska-Susitna Borough side of the bridge; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Assembly of the Matanuska-Susitna Brough requests that existing Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA) project funds be used to complete a community impact assessment of the Big Lake community as well as initiate the engineering and design of Knik-Goose Bay Road, Burma Road, and South Big Lake Road; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that there will be a need for road and other infrastructure improvements including Knik Goose Bay Road, Burma Road, and South Big Lake Road on the Matnuska-Susitna Borough end of the Knik arm crossing when the bridge is built.

“Knik Bridge gets a shot in the arm.” To view this 3/26/10 KTVA story, please click here.

“AMATS votes to keep Knik Arm bridge in city’s short-term plans.” To view this 3/26/10 KTUU story, please click here.

“Tolls will not cover Knik bridge.” To view this 3/24/10 ADN Letter to the Editor, please click here.

“Anchorage Assembly Votes to Delay Knik Bridge.” To listen to this 3/17/10 APRN story, please click here.

“Assembly votes again to delay Knik Arm Bridge.” To view this 3/17/10 ADN story, please click here.

“Assembly takes testimony on Knik Arm Bridge.” To view this 3/16/10 KTUU video and story, please click here.

The decision-making body for transportation projects, the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) Policy Committee, today voted 3-2 to keep the Knik Arm Bridge project in the short-term portion of the Anchorage Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP). The three advisory committees to the Policy Committee – the Anchorage Planning and Zoning Commission, the AMATS Technical Advisory Committee, and the Anchorage Assembly – each voted in 2009 and 2010 to remove the bridge from the list of short-term projects. The five-member Policy Committee is composed of representatives from the Alaska Departments of Transportation and Environmental Conservation, Mayor Sullivan, and two representatives from the Anchor-age Assembly. The Assembly representatives (Flynn and Selkregg) alone voted to make the bridge a long-term project, i.e., post-2018 construction, because key financial and technical questions were not answered by the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority during its testimony before the advisory committees.

To view the 3/25/10 Alaska Transportation Priorities Project media release. please click here.

Following a public meeting on March 16, the Anchorage Assembly passed by a vote of 6-5 resolution 2010-40 which recommends to the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) Policy Committee that the Knik Arm Bridge be moved from the list of short-term projects to the list of long-term projects in the Anchorage Bowl 2025 Long-Range Transportation Plan.

See the Anchorage Daily News op-ed from March 16, 2010 by financial analyst Jamie Kenworthy of Anchorage.

Using the latest information on interest rates, the linked factsheet uses Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA) data to show that the bridge’s deficit exceeds Anchorage’s transportation expenditures for the first 9 years of bridge operation, and then jumps even higher during year 10 when Phase 2 construction begins. KABATA has not produced any information that refutes this analysis.

In a surprising move, the Parnell Administration on February 16, 2010 issued a brief letter stating a new position on the proposed Knik Arm Bridge. The Administration’s new position is contrary to that taken by its regional transportation staff to date. The new position – that the Knik Arm Bridge remain as a short-term project in the Anchorage Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) – conflicts with the regional transportation staff’s position as late as February 11, 2010, i.e., that the bridge be moved to the long-term in the LRTP. Regional transportation staff arrived at that position after an extensive, fact-based public hearing process. The Administration’s February 16th letter destroys a carefully-crafted consensus approved unanimously by the Anchorage Assembly and the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) Technical and Policy Committees in 2009.

By a vote of 10-1 on February 11, 2010 with the Alaska Railroad Corporation the only dissenter, the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) Technical Advisory Committee recommended that the Knik Arm Bridge become a long-term project in Anchorage’s Long Range Transportation Plan. This vote means that construction would not begin until 2018 or later. The AMATS Technical Advisory Committee recommendation now goes to the Anchorage Assembly for a vote in March. Following the Assembly’s action, the AMATS Policy Committee will consider whether or not to adopt the recommendation.

The University of Alaska Anchorage Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) issued new state and Anchorage-region population projections in its December 2009 report entitled Economic and Demographic Projections for Alaska and Greater Anchorage 2010-2035 by Scott Goldsmith. Key changes from the ISER 2005 population projections developed for the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority are reductions in population projections for the state (-43%), for Anchorage and the Mat-Su together (-38.5%) and for the Mat-Su (-34.755%). See p. 69 for summary tables.

To read the new report, please click here.