Alaska Excursions

Alaska Excursions

Wide range of glorious day trips throughout Southcentral Alaska.

Iditarod 38

Photos and stories from the last great race.

Anchorage: 17°/24°/Partly cloudy

Fairbanks: -7°/15°/Mostly clear

Juneau: 35°/38°/Cloudy

More weather

Audit faults state spending on Ketchikan road to unbuilt bridge

More from Alaska

Alaska's 8.8% unemployment rate is highest since 1992

Alaska's unemployment rate hit 8.8 percent in December, up 2 percent since December 2008 and the highest since September 1992. It's still well below the national rate.

PDF: Alaska December unemployment statistics

Audit faults state spending on Ketchikan road to unbuilt bridge

A legislative audit requested by a supporter of the belittled "Bridge to Nowhere" in Ketchikan concludes the state should not have begun work on a new highway until knowing if the span would be built.

SLED DOG RACING

King wins Copper Basin 300

A lesson that Lance Mackey taught Jeff King two years ago at the end of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race may have helped the 54-year-old Denali Park veteran capture his second Copper Basin 300 title -- 15 years after his first.

Forecast says loss of Alaska jobs is slowing down

Scientists go to extremes for Arctic research

Wanted, dead or alive: Frogs riding north on Christmas trees

Haines eagle foundation gets healthy donation

Russian musical kicks off film fest

UAF suspends cash-strapped Susan Butcher Institute

Holiday Train canceled

The Associated Press

JUNEAU -- A legislative audit requested by a supporter of the belittled "Bridge to Nowhere" concludes the state Department of Transportation should not have begun construction of a new highway on Ketchikan's Gravina Island until knowing for certain the span would be built.

Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, sought the audit last year. He and Rep. Kyle Johansen, R-Ketchikan, criticized then-Gov. Sarah Palin's for canceling the project after it had received federal and state appropriations. Despite the cancellation, the Transportation Department spent $26 million of the federal money to build a road to where a bridge might go. The state Division of Legislative Audit decided the spending, though legal, wasn't wise.

"The decision to proceed with the highway construction in May 2007 was not in the public's best interest given the lack of congressional financial support for the bridges and the significant increase in estimated cost," states the audit obtained by the Juneau Empire newspaper.

Improving access between Ketchikan and its airport on nearby Gravina Island has been an issue for decades, long before interest groups opposed to Congressional earmarks ridiculed the bridge project and provided the derisive nickname.

Palin supported the nearly $400 million bridge when she campaigned for governor. But she axed the project and listed it among her fiscally conservative credentials while campaigning as John McCain's running mate last year.

Palin, in the Republican National Convention speech that made her a star, said she told Congress "thanks but no thanks" on the Bridge to Nowhere. The line continued to bring cheers on the campaign trail, but drew winces back home among those who knew Palin had supported the project and only turned against it after Washington backed off its financing.