Infrastructure

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation this week issued guidance on how state and local governments should apply for $600 million for projects under a competitive discretionary grant program.

Smaller airports, transfer hubs, and airports with a large proportion of business from only one or two airlines will be most vulnerable if the remaining U.S. legacy airlines continue to consolidate, Fitch Ratings said in a report issued yesterday.

DALLAS — With its credit rating at the lowest rung of investment grade, Colorado’s E-470 Public Highway Authority has received a negative outlook from Fitch Ratings due to falling toll traffic.

DALLAS — Kansas lawmakers will consider a 10-year, $8.2 billion comprehensive transportation program that authorizes an estimated $1.7 billion of state highway revenue bonds when they reconvene today in Topeka to develop a budget for fiscal 2011.

WASHINGTON — Never before in the U.S. has there been such a push to develop high-speed rail, with Congress and the Obama administration providing funds and new programs that could ultimately get the trains up and running here as they are in other advanced countries.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority last week announced the creation of a transition team to advise the agency on its future direction.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has started doing its own forecasting for dedicated taxes after state projections have repeatedly come in below expectations, MTA staff said yesterday.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority Friday announced it had slashed $1.8 billion from its proposed five-year capital plan in a bid to win state approval. Like an earlier proposal rejected last year by Gov. David Paterson, the slimmed-down $26.27 billion capital program has a $9.91 billion funding gap.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority unanimously voted to endorse Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s proposal to accelerate the region’s mass-transit capital plan.

New Jersey Department of Transportation commissioner James Simpson Thursday said Gov. Chris Christie’s administration is considering several options for replenishing the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.