Infrastructure

DALLAS - Amid market upheaval and presidential warnings of a Wall Street panic, the North Texas Tollway Authority yesterday closed on $609 million of system revenue bonds as it exited a swap agreement with the defunct Lehman Brothers Derivative Products on a previous deal.

DALLAS - With construction and fuel costs soaring, metro Denver's Regional Transportation District is considering five options for covering a $2.3 billion funding shortfall for the FasTracks rail system.

Even as Chicago prepares to open a new runway at O’Hare International Airport, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration last week said future air traffic demand will require much more flight capacity in the region.

ATLANTA - Once hailed as a means to spur economic development in the Greenville, S.C.-area, the Southern Connector toll road has failed to live up to expectations and the debt issued by the Connector 2000 Association to build the road is now in jeopardy.

House Democrats are working on a continuing resolution to extend federal spending at fiscal 2008 levels through March 6, including a potential stopgap measure to continue for five months the Federal Aviation Administration's authority to provide grants that are sometimes used in conjunction with tax-exempt bonds for airport projects.

Indiana has agreed to reimburse the private operator of the Indiana Toll Road after the state waived toll fees along parts of the roadway last week to ease traffic congestion resulting from storms that flooded sections of other major roadways.

DALLAS - Rapidly growing Williamson County, Tex., hired a public relations firm to help it gather opinions on a proposal to expand a heavily used road and to articulate plans for all road projects.

Arkansas transportation officials said the state kept sufficient money on hand to make its semiannual debt payments on $575 million of outstanding highway bonds even if Congress had not shifted $8 billion into the rapidly shrinking federal Highway Trust Fund.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority will not restructure its variable-rate demand bonds for the time being despite spikes in interest rates last week, the MTA said yesterday.

CHICAGO - The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission voted last week to drop its first-of-a-kind plan to use $700 million of private-activity bonds under a federal pilot program to repair 802 bridges in favor of issuing Garvee bonds after the original plan grew too expensive due to the credit crunch.