Infrastructure

The Regional Transportation Authority of Illinois board has elected John Gates Jr. to serve as its new chairman, filling the vacancy left by Jim Reilly who resigned in May to serve as the special trustee overseeing reforms at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority.

WASHINGTON — Transportation stakeholders expecting a comprehensive bill anytime soon could be disappointed as major legislation reauthorizing federal highway and transit programs could be delayed until 2013, sources said last week.

Fitch Ratings last week upgraded the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to AA from A-plus, affecting $327 million of outstanding debt.

The Delaware River Port Authority on Thursday announced a hiring freeze and said it will cut next year’s budget by 2%, or $2.6 million, to reduce the bi-state agency’s spending.

The New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority on Thursday approved a $1.4 billion new-money and refinancing deal that will most likely include taxable Build America Bonds.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has delayed for a month oral presentations in the selection of underwriters and swap counterparties, the agency confirmed Wednesday.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Atlanta announced a lease agreement with airlines Tuesday that should enable the city to move forward with a long-awaited financing for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

DALLAS — Less than two months after a record $1.5 billion deal, the Texas Transportation Commission is preparing another $1 billion issue of general obligation bonds.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania agree that the state needs a long-term transportation funding strategy, but have yet to find consensus on how the state should pay for roads, bridges, and public transit.

Public finance attorney Kenneth Lind was made partner at Nixon Peabody LLP, the firm announced Tuesday. Lind has served as bond counsel at the firm’s New York City office since leaving the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority in January 2008, where he had been acting finance director.