Economy

LOS ANGELES — After six years laying groundwork, a project to construct a new $715 million Otay Mesa Port of Entry and a connecting highway at the Mexican border in San Diego appears to be moving forward.

DALLAS — Arkansas will study a proposal to turn the Interstate highway from Little Rock to Memphis into a toll road after the General Assembly failed to repeal a sales tax exemption on large trucks and trailers.

WASHINGTON — Transportation, water and energy infrastructure projects are most attractive for investment by public-private partnerships in the United States, according to a survey of construction company and engineering firm executives.

WASHINGTON — House Transportation Committee chairman John Mica on Thursday introduced a bill that would extend the current temporary highway and transit bill by three months, in an effort to buy time for more debate on a multi-year reauthorization.

CHICAGO — The Ohio Department of Transportation announced that it has formed a new division dedicated to ramping up the state's privatization efforts in an effort to lower costs and find new funding sources.

WASHINGTON — House Transportation Committee chairman Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., will introduce a three-month extension of temporary law reauthorizing highway and transit programs — the ninth such extension — before the end of the month.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is aggressively going after uncollected toll revenue, filing 14 civil suits on Tuesday against what it calls the most egregious toll violators.

Moody’s Investors Service on Monday downgraded to B3 from Ba3 the long-term rating assigned to Weirton Medical Center in West Virginia.

With public ire over the former mayor's flawed $1.15 billion lease of Chicago's parking meter system still clouding the local political landscape for public private partnerships, the city is turning to a next-generation model as it eyes private dollars to fund infrastructure and lower the cost of some city services.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Monday released the final environmental impact report for the nine-mile Westside Subway extension project estimated to cost between $5.6 billion and $6.2 billion.

Advancing a project long in the works, President Obama signed legislation last week allowing for construction of the St. Croix River bridge connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin by exempting the project from federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act restrictions.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority in central Florida is extending the call date on all or a portion of $185.8 million of term bonds at the request of Citi.

Holders of $229 million of debt issued for a now-bankrupt upscale continuing care retirement community in downtown Chicago would recoup just pennies on the dollar under an initial bid for the facility.

Pennsylvania’s General Assembly has advanced to the Senate a bill requiring an annual financial and management audit of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission by auditors in both the Keystone State and New Jersey.

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed the Baa1 rating assigned to Boston Medical Center’s bonds, and revised the outlook to stable from negative.

Moody's Investors Service affirmed the A1 rating on Jackson Laboratory's fixed-rate series 2007 revenue bonds, issued through the Association of Bay Area Governments Finance Authority for Nonprofit Corporations, with a stable outlook.

A total of about $101 billion, plus increases for inflation, will be needed annually over the next 20 years from federal, state,and local governments to keep the highway system in its current state, the Department of Transportation said Friday.

WASHINGTON — The two-year, $109 billion highway bill that cleared the Senate Wednesday contained several provisions that would benefit or ease restrictions on municipal bonds, but market participants think they could come to nothing if the House insists on pursuing its own bill.

Moody’s Investors Service Wednesday revised the outlook on Renown Health to stable from negative, and affirmed its A3 revenue bond rating on $556 million of debt.

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 74 to 22 on Wednesday to approve a two-year, $109 billion highway reauthorization bill that would increase the limit for bank-qualified bonds to $30 million from $10 million.