Anchorage will drop its lawsuit against the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, which is proposing a controversial public-private toll bridge project, according to published reports.
In July, the city filed a lawsuit to get the federal government to drop support for the project over concerns about the impact of the Knik Arm Crossing on its port.
Critics call it one of the state’s two “bridges to nowhere,” the other being the Gravina Island Bridge.
The authority is hoping to get money from the state to help cover the bridge costs if tolls fall short when the project opens.
The bridge and causeway would link central Anchorage with the Port MacKenzie area of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, across the two-mile-wide ocean inlet called the Knik Arm.
The Alaska Legislature formed KABATA in 2003.
The project includes an 8,200-foot bridge and an 800-foot tunnel near the Anchorage end.
The authority overcame an earlier lawsuit in 2009 filed by the region’s federally designated metropolitan planning organization, Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions, over the impact of the project on the city’s neighborhoods and traffic.
It also had to overcome concerns about the endangered beluga whale habitat in the Cook Inlet.
