NEPA is the National Environmental Policy Act, a law enacted by Congress in 1969 that, among other things, imposes strict regulations on major construction projects such as the envisioned span linking Anchorage with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

The bridge authority will announce proposals for three professional contracts, seeking individuals and firms with expertise to handle the technical, environmental and "procedural and regulatory concerns," surrounding the project, Springer said.

Formal Requests for Proposals, or RFPs, for the consulting work will be published this month. The group anticipates a three-week response period and a week to evaluate the proposals and select the consultants, said former Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch, chairman of the authority's board of directors.

Besides paying for consulting fees, the $6 million also will cover the authority's operating costs for this year and pay the initial expenses of bringing a slew of local, state and federal entities into the mix, Wuerch said.

"There are some agencies who are going to dip into that," he said. "As soon as we file our letter of intent (to build the causeway) they are going to start billing their time to this project."

Springer and Wuerch said additional funding will be required to complete the intricate process of complying with NEPA regulations.

"Right now, we don't know exactly how much that's going to be, for the very simple reason that we are analyzing the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the bridge that was done by the state in 1984," Springer said.

Wuerch said it is not like they are re-inventing the wheel to get the project going.

"The good news is, there are a number of Alaskan firms who worked on that 1984 product who are still here doing business, a lot of the same people are still here," Wuerch said.

"They only shut it down because we had that little economic episode in 1986 when oil went from $30 a barrel to $8 overnight," Wuerch asserted. "A lot of things went on the shelf about that time, so you shouldn't conclude that the 1984 draft EIS was flawed, you should conclude only that we ran out of money. We're hopeful that much of that work can be rescued and form a baseline for our update."

He said the authority is still waiting for a final report on drilling samples taken last year along a proposed route for the causeway in the silty waters of Knik Arm. But initial indications are promising, he said.

"There is no bottomless pit out there," Wuerch said. "On the other hand, there is no bedrock either, but you don't have to have bedrock. If you look at bridges all over the country, a lot of them are built on consolidated sedimentary soil."

Cost estimates for construction of the causeway begin at around $400 million and go up from there into the $2 billion range, depending on how much money will be needed for roadway approaches and related infrastructure.

Longtime Alaskans are often skeptical about the possibility of getting any money to build the thing. After all, it has been talked about since the 1950s.

But Wuerch is confident that if there was ever a prime time to get it done, it is now.

Alaska Rep. Don Young wants to include construction funds for the bridge in the national transportation bill that will go to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for "markup" by the end of February, Wuerch said.

He said it is uncertain how long the committee will take to debate the bill, but he expects it will go before the full House for a vote this spring.

"We're talking about six years' worth of transportation projects and funding for the whole country. It's a thousand-page bill."

"This is no small task, but it's in the hands of Congressman Young and his staff."

Wuerch said it is "anyone's guess" as to how Congress will handle the transportation bill. It could be approved as an entire package, or lawmakers could parcel it out in two-year increments, or take no action at all, he said. But he insisted that inaction on the measure is politically unlikely.

"There seems to be a building sentiment that something's got to be done before the November elections that allows the current crop of U.S. Congress members to go home with some projects in their hip pocket," Wuerch said. "And the transportation bill affects every single state in this union.

"The failure to act on what's good for the neighborhood is pretty tough when you are up for reelection. It's all about money."

Wuerch said inclusion of funding for the causeway in the federal transportation bill is of the utmost importance.

"If we don't see that type of national commitment, then this project will not go forward," Wuerch said.