Infrastructure

A former New York transportation official who helped obtain a $2.9 billion statewide bond package for transit, highway, and bridge projects, sailed through a Senate committee hearing Wednesday, earning bipartisan support for his nomination to head the Federal Highway Administration.

DALLAS - A new bypass that would open up existing freight tracks for commuter rail between Austin and San Antonio would cost $2.4 billion, with the means of financing yet to be identified, according to a report from the Texas Department of Transportation released yesterday.

CHICAGO - Longtime Fitch Ratings airport analyst Peter Stettler will leave the agency this month to join an aviation consulting group based in Chicago.

A federal plan to revamp the national transportation system would remove the $15 billion cap on private-activity bonds used to finance construction of highways and rail-to-truck freight transfer facilities, withhold federal monies for some large projects unless public-private partnerships have been considered, and encourage use of state infrastructure banks.

Massachusetts lawmakers yesterday were meeting behind closed doors to discuss how to enhance a portion or all of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's $2.2 billion of outstanding debt while lawmakers also evaluates four different borrowing plans totaling $9 billion before the legislative session ends on July 31.

Parking fees and a new sales tax could finance part of a proposed $80 million three-mile streetcar project in Grand Rapids, according to a new feasibility study.

ATLANTA - The Kentucky Turnpike Authority today will begin selling $200 million of revenue bonds that were authorized for several road projects designed to facilitate economic development in the state.

A transportation consulting group has proposed a 15.3 mile streetcar system in Austin that would cost $550 million to $614 million to build and $21 million to $23 million a year to operate.

A Senate Finance subcommittee turned a critical eye to the current tax code and public-private partnerships as a solution for infrastructure funding woes during a hearing last week, which came on the heels of a Department of Transportation report that announced record-breaking highs in the number of P3 deals for surface transportation.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week advanced a sales tax ballot measure that would raise as much as $40 billion to expand highways and public transportation in the nation's most notoriously congested region.