Where'd Alaska's mega-project mojo go?

Dear Elder Statesmen:

No doubt you've read the latest cost estimates for TransCanada's proposed natural gas pipeline. Now that line could cost up to $41 billion, which is a little bit more than the previous maximum cost estimate. The fact that these estimates keep going up is making some Alaskans anxious. We've been hearing all sorts of doomsday scenarios from people who think a natural gas line is getting too costly or risky or what-have-you.

Same thing goes for the perennial idea of building a road to Nome, which Gov. Parnell recently resurrected in his State of the State address. A study commissioned by the state said the road would cost more than $1,000 per foot to build, and already Alaskans are turning up their noses at it, wondering whether it would be wise or whether the resources it would increase access to are really worth that much.

Well, The Concerned are worried too -- not about the huge costs or massive scale of the projects, mind you. Nope, we're so used to everything in Alaska costing a lot that we were actually kind of surprised when the very first estimate of the TransCanada pipeline came in under $100 billion -- of course, the final design will probably feature significantly less decorative stenciling than we hoped for, so the unimpressive price tag makes some sense.

What really concerns us is that Alaskans seem to have lost their stomach for the big, daring projects worthy of the state and your faith in us. Maybe that very public smackdown we took over the Gravina Island Bridge put us off our feed, but whatever caused it, now more than ever, Alaskans need that Go-Big-or-Go-Home spirit they used to be celebrated for. Because you six did so much to encourage that spirit, we thought we'd ask: How can Alaskans can get their mega-project mojo back?

Aside from the road to Nome and that huge bowl of pipeline spaghetti, there aren't a lot of projects huge enough to stoke that old fire in the belly you knew so well. There are plenty of ideas: a road from the Dalton highway to Umiat; a railroad extension to Delta Junction; a highway extension heading north from Juneau; and the Knik Arm Bridge. But all that stuff is small potatoes; if it doesn't have the word "billions" attached to it, The Concerned is not interested.