Infrastructure

State transportation agencies are working together to develop strategies aimed at making investment in infrastructure more palatable to the public, as official fears of a rising investment gap meet public concerns about long-term debt.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell blasted the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority after a new U.S. Department of Transportation report found numerous flaws in its policies and procedures.

Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings directors say Hurricane Sandy could create a downward impact on a few of the most severely impacted credits.

Though they can often deliver infrastructure projects faster and at lower cost than traditional procurement, P3s are not a silver bullet and not always the right way to go, according to a new white paper released by the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

Several Virginia municipalities have retained legal counsel to fight Gov. Bob McDonnell's plan to toll Interstate 95, which commonwealth officials have said could help close a $10 billion funding gap over the next 25 years.

House Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers asked Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to help eliminate rules requiring municipalities to defease outstanding bonds when selling or leasing their water systems to a private company.

Bonds have played a role in financing spaceports.

Spaceports are popping up all over the U.S., as both existing airports and brand new facilities position themselves to profit from a new age of commercial space travel and transport, but the industry is still in its infancy.

Airports will continue to remain at risk for credit downgrades until passenger enplanements reach consistent growth of 3%, far above the flat-to-negative trajectory Moody's Investors Service expects.

WASHINGTON — Mileage-based systems could yield revenues between three and eight times higher than the gas taxes currently used to maintain the public road system and back bonds, the Congressional Budget Office found.

PortMiami's "Deep Dredge" harbor project will be mostly financed with bonds to ready the port for the Panama Canal expansion in early 2015. Miami-Dade County will pick up the federal costs to get the project done.

Spanish infrastructure investment giant Cintra will be the private partner on a more than $1 billion public-private partnership to develop the Route 460 Corridor project in southeastern Virginia, sources said.

The nation's drinking and wastewater systems are extremely underfunded and in need of billions of dollars of additional bond financing, according to a new study from the Center for American Progress.

Slide show of Puerto Rico Public Private Partnerships P3s

Ohio is selling GO bonds this week and Garvee bonds in November. Ohio says the Garvee deal will proceed despite uncertainty over federal transportation funding and the fiscal cliff.

Transportation and infrastructure policy has taken a back seat throughout the presidential campaign so far, a fact that industry insiders think is an intentional dodge of the daunting challenge of funding new investment.

Fluctuating fuel prices and a reluctance to raise on customers in a down economy could put pressure on public utilities credits in the near future, analysts from the three major credit agencies warn.

New York City's Municipal Water Finance Authority is scheduled to price $200 million of second resolution, adjustable rate tax-exempt bonds through negotiation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case of Corr V. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, a lawsuit that strikes at MWAA's primary mechanism of repaying more than $2 billion of bond debt.

Moody's Investors Service may downgrade $10 billion of Garvee bonds, the ratings agency announced Tuesday, because of the increasing uncertainty of the federal revenue stream that backs them.