Infrastructure

A seven-member panel studying high-speed rail service in north Texas plans to seek federal funding to begin development of a line between Austin and Fort Worth.

A federal lawsuit seeking to halt Maryland's $2.4 billion Purple Line light rail project says track work will threaten endangered species.

Baltimore city and county will provide $280 million for Maryland's $2.9 billion Red Line light rail project to help attract $900 million of federal funding.

States are losing more than $1 billion a year by giving breaks on jet fuel taxes to airlines, the Unite Here International Union said in a new report.

Oregon, which invented the gasoline tax in 1919, is on the road to be the first state to shift to a mileage-based user fee for highway funding.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority closes on a $1.3 billion federal loan to complete the final 11 miles of a light-rail line to Dulles International Airport.

Everything from mileage-based fee systems to higher state fuel taxes are on the table as states seek new ways to increase transportation funding.

Airport credits are stabilizing after major shifts in the airline industry, Moody's Investors Service said, but smaller hub airports face challenges.

Mileage-based fees may one day replace the gasoline tax as the prime source for federal transportation funding, but it won't be quick and it won't be easy.

Pennsylvania's Transportation Commission will submit an updated 12-year, $63.2 billion transportation program to federal officials, said Gov. Tom Corbett.

Congress delayed, but did not fix, a $100 billion hole in federal transportation spending with the enactment last Friday of legislation providing $10.8 billion to extend solvency of the rapidly shrinking Highway Trust Fund by 10 months.

President Obama signed a 10-month, $11 billion bailout of Highway Trust Fund that ensures federal reimbursements continue to state transportation projects.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is urging voters to press lawmakers for a long-term solution to federal highway funding before the end of 2014, but industry experts don't expect Congress to take action until spring 2015 at the earliest.

The National Association of Water Companies wants the Treasury Department to clarify tax rules so that state and local governments can ensure the tax-exempt bonds they used to finance their water and wastewater facilities will not become taxable if they enter into public-private partnerships.

Short-term patch of the Highway Trust Fund is credit positive for $12 billion of state highway Garvee bonds, Moody's says. But neither it nor other major rating agencies are planning to change Garvee ratings or outlooks.

A slew of bond-related bills was introduced in the House and Senate in the last few days before members of Congress left town to begin their five-week recess.

A water main break that resulted in the release of an estimated 20 million gallons of water, flooding Westside Los Angeles neighborhoods and the University of California-Los Angeles campus, is reflective of problems cities across the country face as they grapple with aging infrastructures.

The Senate keeps transportation dollars flowing with for at least 10 months with last-minute approval of the House's $11 billion highway fund bailout.

The House rejected the Senate's amendments to its $10.8 billion, 10-month bailout of the Highway Trust Fund on Thursday afternoon and sent its original bill back to the Senate.

Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday released proposed changes in its rating methodology for 1,100 municipal utilities that it said would only result in rating changes, split between upgrades and downgrades, for less than 10% of them.