EACH EXTRA CENTIMETER MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

Foreign Minister: Bridge debate going overboard -- Source

KUALA LUMPUR: Cut down on the debates, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar told MPs and other parties who have voiced their concern about the delay to build the new bridge across the Johor straits.
"The less we debate openly about the matter, the easier the topics can be finalised, including the technical details," he added.
In the meantime, Malaysia was going ahead with a RM620mil so-called "scenic bridge" that would go only halfway across the channel. It is scheduled to be completed in 36 months and will start operations by April 1, 2009.
Syed Hamid reiterated that the Government would not stop the construction of the new bridge and neither would it end its negotiations with Singapore.

The country is in deep waters when a Minister of the government can kill off debates by insisting that “The less we debate openly about the matter ("The Scenic Bridge" aka "The Bridge to Nowhere") the easier the topics can be finalised”
He sounds eerily like Mahathir Mohamad when told, that Article 121(1A) of the apartheid Islamic Family Law was amended in 1988 during his administration, the Minister Mentor retorted, “Yes…during my time there was no protest…nothing, so I supposed, I got away with it”
It looks like his Sifu taught him well “Tolerate no protest, brook no opposition”

Interestingly the US of A is also embroiled with their pork barrel “Bridge to Nowhere”. The approximately 2.7 km long bridge connecting Gravina Island to Ketchikan on the Revilla Island in Alaska will span 2 channels. The bridge itself will cost RM825 million, or an average of RM305 million a kilometre in ice cold Alaska. Our 1.4 km bridge will cost RM620 million or RM442 million per kilometre. It is a universal understanding that each extra centimeter makes all the difference to the wallet.

Battle Over ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ Continues -- Source

After it received $223 million as a special “earmark” project in last year’s highway and transportation bill, the bridge between Gravina Island and Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska was called “The Bridge to Nowhere.”
Critics pointed out that Gravina only had approximately 50 residents, while Ketchikan had approximately 8,000. Connecting them with a bridge would cost a total of $315 million.
They also declared that this special bridge was only included in last year’s highway and transportation bill because it was sponsored by Rep. Don Young, R-AK, a dominant figure in transportation funding, because he is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Now the question is: “What are the plans for the Bridge to Nowhere; when will it be built?”
No one seems to know for sure.
Young isn’t commenting. His press office referred all calls to the transportation committee’s communications director, who did not return repeated phone requests for information.