[Dorian G.]

Originally Posted by northwest2k

If Japan can have 4 bridges linking all their islands. Why can't we have at least 1???

A section of this article is applicable here, but also more generally: contrary to popular belief (motivated by Simcity, I imagine) it is possible to spend too much on infrastructure:

from The Puzzle of Power:
Japan's local governments are unhealthily dependent on its national one
Mar 6th 2008 | KUMAMOTO
From The Economist print edition

***
In such a system [of weak local govt.], says Mr Kitagawa, local governments act as mere contractors to the centre. It is the chief cause of the wasteful infrastructure spending that blights Japan's landscape. In Kumamoto, for example, a struggling prefecture on southern Kyushu island, one local official admits that unnecessary new bypasses, financed partly by the central government, are hastening the decline of town centres, which get little government investment. Meanwhile, he says, a planned costly extension of the bullet train, on which the prefecture pins its hopes, is just as likely to make it easier for businesses and young people to flee to the thriving big city of Fukuoka as it is to attract them.

The LDP has tried to improve things. Junichiro Koizumi, the reformist prime minister between 2001 and 2006, slashed public spending on infrastructure, which at its peak was three or four times higher than in other rich countries. But it remains high. He also introduced measures that were supposed radically to decentralise power. Yet, apart from saving the central government money, they have not worked. Although Tokyo claimed it was giving localities greater autonomy, in practice it slashed subsidies, leaving local governments tottering under a weight of debt incurred as a result of projects ordered by the national government years before.
***

Worth mentioning that another major reason that a bridge will never happen is that BC Ferries was recently privatized, and what kind of message would the government be sending to potential investors if it decides to use taxpayer money do destroy a privately operated ferry business (in addition to harming the Helijet and seaplanes)? I imagine the government agreed not to compete when BC Ferries was privatized.