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Ketchikan's mayor, angry about the loss of the city's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," is accusing the Juneau-based Department of Transportation and Public Facilities staff of bias against his project and being in favor of the Juneau Access Project.

"It has been obvious to me for some time that the Southeast Region of DOT has an emotional commitment to the Juneau Access Project, and has been driving the project forward through the use of what appears to be inaccurate, incomplete and/or misleading information," wrote Bob Weinstein, mayor of Ketchikan, in a March letter to DOT Commissioner Leo Von Scheben.

Ketchikan's $400 million Gravina Access project was canceled by Gov. Sarah Palin after costs rose and a national group fighting government waste derided it a "Bridge to Nowhere" in its campaign against congressional earmarks.

Weinstein said costs for the Juneau road were unrealistically low and are "significantly underestimating the true cost."

In an April response letter, von Scheben defended the department's cost estimates, saying they'd been developed by professional engineers and are reviewed by the Federal Highway Administration.

"I believe this project is important to the department as a whole, not just to the Southeast Region," von Scheben wrote.

The department is confident in its Juneau access cost estimates, which currently stand at $374 million, von Scheben said.

Not all of the design work, which would include more precise cost estimates, has been done yet, he acknowledged.

"At this time I know of no fact that would lead me to doubt our staff or consultant estimates," he said.

Weinstein compared the DOT cost estimate with a smaller project the department did in downtown Ketchikan that has been estimated at $6 million and eventually cost $26 million.

Weinstein said numerous locals had warned that there was a slide area in the Third Avenue bypass project, but the department went ahead and began the project anyway.

"It was halted when the slide area was reached, and it was obvious that substantial redesign would have to occur," he said. And that was a one-mile project in close proximity to an urban area.

In his response, von Scheben said that project was expensive simply because it was in an urban area, and those cost estimates were not comparable to the Juneau Access Project.

It involved traffic control, off-site parking, blasting in close proximity to houses, and other complications not found in a new highway project in an area closed to the public and away from adjacent users, von Scheben said.

The commissioner did not explain why that would have made accurate cost estimates more difficult, however, and did not return phone calls Thursday or Friday.

Weinstein recommended several changes to the state's Juneau access plans, including a third-party, private-sector firm to do a peer review of the cost estimates, an analysis of the impact of Juneau access on other projects in the state, a state plan to begin work on replacement Alaska Marine Highway System vessels because the road's 12-year construction timeline means older vessels will need to be replaced before the road is ready.

Rep. Andrea Doll, D-Juneau, who received copies of the exchange of letters along with other key Southeast legislators, said Weinstein's recommendations had some merit.

"I can't speak about the distortion of numbers. I don't know if that's true or not, but his recommendations are probably well founded," Doll said.

She said she was concerned the state was not on track to replacing aging vessels in a timely manner.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or e-mail patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.