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ANCHORAGE -- After five years and $41.5 million spent on planning, one of Southcentral Alaska's most ambitious development dreams, the Knik Arm Bridge, is at a crossroads.

Alaska's only U.S. representative, Don Young, five years ago was chairman of the House Transportation Committee, with strong influence over federal highway spending. Then-Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski pushed for progress on a bridge between Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

But Young is now in the U.S. House minority, Murkowski is out of office and budget watchdogs have mocked the project as a symbol of pork-barrel spending.

Former Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch resigned in April as chairman of the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, the state agency charged with creating the bridge. The bridge authority's deputy director left too, saying the project had stalled.

"We need a complete review," said Gov. Sarah Palin last week of the latest plans for paying for the bridge. "We need to see if things have changed in the last couple of years from when the project seemed to have a lot of steam, a lot of energy behind it, to where we are now."

Knik Arm bridge authority officials remain optimistic. Criticized for secrecy, they have pledged openness.

"The project couldn't be more on track, in terms of trying to tie together the community and the administrative folks in the city, than ever before," said spokeswoman Mary Ann Pease.

The authority is relying on investors to pay most of the project's cost in exchange for toll revenue. Attracting investors will be harder if state and municipal agencies are disputing bridge details.

"The developers won't be interested unless they know that the state is a good partner," said Kevin Hemenway, chief financial officer for the authority.

Palin, a former Wasilla mayor, has said she supports the idea of a Knik arm bridge. But she also said the authority's plans must be reviewed.

"If what we hear is it could cost the state $1 billion - and that would result in huge financial risks allocated to the state - then it may not be worth it for the state to pursue the project," Palin said.

The Knik Arm bridge would be an 8,200-foot span connecting Anchorage to mostly undeveloped land near Point MacKenzie.

In 2005, Young inserted more than $200 million seed money for the Knik Arm bridge in a spending bill. Congress later pulled the earmark amid criticism of the Anchorage project and of a proposed Gravina Island bridges in Ketchikan.

The state still received the money but did not have to use it on the bridges.

Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, say they remain supporters.

For years, the bridge authority has loosely estimated the cost at about $600 million, which does not include adding Anchorage street connections, a top priority for city leaders.

Every year of delay adds about $25 million in costs, Hemenway said.

With financing costs and potential permitting delays or lawsuits, the bridge cost could approach $1 billion.

The authority says two international consortia have shown interest in building, financing and running the bridge. As of April, the bridge authority said it has spent about $41.5 million on planning. Most of it was federal money.

The authority's deputy director, Darryl Jordan, resigned April 4.

"The reason I bailed out is I don't see it going any time soon," Jordan said. "Politics has basically grabbed a hold of its neck, and rising interest rates are going to make it impossible to do without a large subsidy from state or federal (government).

"Because that isn't going to happen any time soon, I thought it might be best to find a real project."

Bridge authority director Andrew Niemiec would not comment on Jordan's departure, saying it was a personnel issue.

Pease, the authority spokeswoman, said interest rates remain low and, "Last time I checked (Jordan's) degree was in engineering, not in finance."

"His understanding of where we're at and where we're going is very limited," she said.

On April 22, the state Transportation Department sent the bridge authority a four-page letter saying the department was "concerned with the ongoing expenses associated with the planning process for this project."

The state wanted to evaluate the bridge authority's work so far and learn what the state might be obligated to pay if the project moved ahead.

The letter asked how much the state or authority would have to pay if certain bridge permits were delayed or never issued, and what would happen if the bridge draws only a fraction of the expected traffic.

The bridge authority responded with about 80 pages of information but refused to provide a copy to the Anchorage Daily News.

Weeks after Jordan's departure and days after the letter from the state, Wuerch resigned.

In a letter to Palin, Wuerch wrote that he still believed the project could be built as a public-private partnership and that the time was right for someone to pick up where he left off.

Palin said Wednesday that she had not selected Wuerch's replacement and will be looking to board members to help make that decision.

"Maybe they'll get a new champion in (who) can do the political wand waving and get it to happen quickly," Jordan said of the crossing.