Infrastructure

The federal government will swap obsolete office buildings in Washington for more modern facilities through P3 arrangements.

American Airlines will ask a bankruptcy court to approve an agreement with federal regulators that settles the government's antitrust lawsuit against American's proposed merger with US Airways Group Inc.

Vice President Joe Biden used a visit to the Port of Houston to renew the Obama administration's proposal for a $50 billion infrastructure renewal program.

National League of Cities members on Saturday elected St. Paul, Minn. Mayor Chris Coleman as their president for 2014 at a business meeting on Saturday.

Legislation recently introduced in Congress would transfer nearly all authority over federal highway and transit programs to states and substantially reduce federal motor fuel taxes over a five-year period.

Tolls from managed traffic lanes can be an effective way to fund expensive highway projects, but investors need to consider revenue volatility.

States are no longer waiting for the federal government when it comes to trying to drum up new revenue for transportation infrastructure, said Victor Mendez, administrator, Federal Highway Administration, Friday morning at the Bond Buyer's Transportation Finance/P3 conference here.

A Nov. 11 announcement that Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves will be building a new stadium in suburban Cobb County and will receive some form of local government funding has brought an age-old debate on whether public dollars for sports facilities makes economic sense for municipalities back to the forefront. The question of governments such as Cobb County utilizing public money for sports venues was raised on Nov. 6 during a panel called “Stadium Financing: Boon or Bane” at the Bloomberg State & Municipal Conference in New York. Gregory Carey, managing director at Goldman Sachs & Co. who heads the investment banking company’s sports finance and surface transportation finance group, argued that the pros of governments investing in stadiums and arenas for their sports teams outweighs the cons. One example cited by Carey was how the $400 million the state of Minnesota is putting in toward a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings comprises roughly the payroll tax paid by the National Football League franchise that would be lost should the team have relocated out of the area.

Legislation introduced in the Senate Thursday would create a new financing authority that would provide loans and loan guarantees for infrastructure projects.

Municipal borrowers looking to expedite the process to tap the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program for project loans should bring a thorough financing package to the table and be flexible in negotiating terms, loan recipients offered up as advice Thursday.

More than $5 billion in private activity bond capacity remains available from DOT to fund P3’s that invest in large surface transportation projects.

The group of motorists who lost their challenge to the Elizabeth River Tunnels public-private partnership in the Virginia Supreme Court are asking the court to rehear the case, as the commonwealth's governor-elect suggests he is interested in working to lower the planned toll rates for the tunnels.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reached a financial closing on a $1.5 billion P3 to replace the Goethals Bridge with a cable stayed design bridge.

An agreement on funding new and renewed transportation infrastructure could be the basis of a bipartisan budget deal, President Barack Obama said Friday at the Port of New Orleans in south Louisiana.

The Maryland Transit Administration plans to seek bids soon for a private partner willing to provide up to $900 million of funding for a $2.2 billion light-rail line in the northern suburbs of Washington following Gov. Martin O'Malley's and the state Board of Public Works' unanimous approval of the P3 competitive solicitation process.

Leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chairman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have appointed six senators to join them on the conference committee that will reconcile two versions of water legislation, one of which contains a public-private partnership pilot program.

The federal government approved a $1.6 billion Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan for the New York Thruway Authority’s new Tappan Zee Bridge.

The Virginia Supreme Court issued a ruling Thursday that allows the Elizabeth River Tunnels project to move forward as a tolled facility.

Traffic and toll revenues are ramping up on Maryland Transportation Authority’s $2.4 billion, 19-mile Intercounty Connector built to relieve congestion in the Washington area.

U.S. airports are rebounding from the recession to a more normal pattern with stabilized ratings, Fitch said in new report issued today (Oct. 30).