Knik Arm Bridge News

1934 strike showed our vulnerability

Mayor Dan Sullivan has recently filed suit to force the relocation of the east approach to the proposed Knik Arm bridge, a necessity, he says, to protect the expansion of the Port of Anchorage. The claims and challenges regarding the conditions and expansion of the Anchorage port underscore the vulnerability of Alaska shipping, and the colonial character of Alaskan life. The weekly TOTE and Horizon shipments into Anchorage represent a tenuous tether, tying Alaska life to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. Most everything sold at Wal-Mart, Costco, Sears, Nordstrom, Spenard Builders Supply and just about everywhere else in Alaska is shipped from Tacoma, through the Anchorage port. One study found that 40 percent of the tonnage shipped from Tacoma is Alaska-bound.

The vulnerability of this Alaska livelihood line was brought home most forcefully in 1934, when longshoremen all along the West Coast from San Diego to Seattle went on strike, protesting increased work loads, favoritism in hiring, and low pay. The leader of the strike was Harry Bridges, a brilliant negotiating tactician who headed the International Longshoremen's Association. Bridges had worked on the docks as a common workman for 10 years and knew the laborers' circumstances. He also knew which employers were fair and which were not.

The walkout began in May and by the beginning of July showed no signs of abating. Fearing a loss of profit, and the radicalization of the workplace, the shipping and warehousing companies decided to break the strike. In San Francisco they hired trucks, and 700 temporary policemen with tear gas and riot gear and began hauling goods from dockside to warehouses in defiance of the union. The strikers attacked with rocks and spikes, and local police responded with bullets and tear gas. Two strikers died and 67 were wounded.

Company owners thought they had won, but a wave of sympathy for the workers swept the city and Bridges and other union leaders capitalized on the friendly feelings by organizing a citywide general strike. For four days virtually all commercial activity ceased as workers of every description walked off their jobs. Seattle and Portland seemed threatened, as well.

For Alaskans, the dock strike meant potential disaster. With no cargo moving, there was no alternative way to bring goods into the territory, and towns began to calculate what supplies they had on hand and when they would run out of necessities. The national press focused on the "starving Alaskans," which Gov. John Troy made the centerpiece of his pleas for the federal government to step in and commandeer a vessel for Alaska relief. That might have happened under previous administrations, but Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal Congress were more favorable to unions.

Columbia River bridge project overestimated toll money - Northwest ...

The Oregonian reports the estimates were too high because they were made before the Great Recession and its impact on jobs, economic growth and driver behavior.

Traffic dwindled on the bridge, but the project's backers failed to account for the corresponding drop in toll money.

"The economy obviously took a significant hit, which drove reductions in traffic," said Oregon treasurer Ted Wheeler.

The project is a 50-50 venture between Oregon and Washington. The original $3 billion bridge plan anticipated $1.25 billion in federal highway dollars, about $900 million in contributions from each state and $1.3 billion from bond sales backed by toll revenue.

The report from the treasurer's office by two consulting firms focused on the toll revenue. It found that the traffic numbers were significantly off and would likely stay that way. The report confirms the suspicions of many of the project's critics, who for years have questioned the project's traffic projections.

The new estimates mean the project will have about $500 million less to work with.

The Washington and Oregon transportation departments had for years studied what to do with the border crossing. Chronic traffic congestion has become a safety issue and an impediment to both land and marine freight traffic, and it transformed commuting into a daily nightmare.

In April, Govs. John Kitzhaber of Oregon and Chris Gregoire of Washington decided on a deck truss bridge design, similar to the newer Glenn Jackson Interstate 205 Bridge just to the east.

For Kitzhaber, it was déjà vu: The governor who served from 1995-2003 returned to office in 2010 to find the bridge still at a "proposed" stage.

When the report was released this week, Oregon treasury department officials advised the Columbia River Crossing, the name given to the joint project, to look to the federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program. Run by the Federal Highway Administration, the program extends loans and credit lines to surface projects.

The bridge now isn't just clogged, it's potentially dangerous. The current bridge is two spans, one from 1917 and the second from 1958. The structures are considered vulnerable to an earthquake.

Replacing the bridge is a priority for business interests and labor unions on both sides of the Columbia, but planners had spent more than $100 million on it without reaching an agreement that accommodates a variety of interests.

Congressional Record, V. 151, Pt. 17, October 7 to 26, 2005

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