Transportation industry

The need for New York's MTA to borrow up to $4.8 billion using short-term recovery notes for Hurricane Sandy costs is a credit negative, according to Moody's.

Transportation experts and lobbyists believe anointed House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster will make financing issue a bigger focus than the man he will replace.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is scheduled to sell $595 million of consolidated bonds in two series on Wednesday. Proceeds will finance capital expenditures for the authority's tunnels, bridges, and PATH train.

The Texas Transportation Commission is pricing its largest general obligation bond issue of the year Tuesday, with $839.3 million of tax-exempt debt selling through negotiation and $100 million of taxable bonds offered competitively.

The toll of Hurricane Sandy on the Eastern Seaboard's transportation infrastructure underscores the need to fund both annual maintenance and "generational" infrastructure projects, said John Porcari of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Alabama prices $340 million of new Garvee bonds Wednesday as part of Gov. Robert Bentley's Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program.

Spending on transportation infrastructure construction is likely to grow a modest 3% next year to a total of $130.3 billion, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association's annual forecast.

The ability to fast-track stalled projects as well as create jobs is making the design-build-finance model attractive to states, panelists said at The Bond Buyer's annual transportation and P3 conference.

In the week's largest deal, the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund will sell $1.2 billion of bonds to finance various transportation projects in the state.

Panelists at the Bond Buyer's annual transportation and P3 conference said the newly expanded TIFIA program, combined with private activity bonds and yield-hungry investors are powerful tools for governments embarking on public-private transportation projects.

Los Angeles World Airports' success in managing a multi-billion dollar expansion project is likely to be parlayed into a receptive environment for its $269 million bond pricing next Wednesday.

Battered by Hurricane Sandy, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority may be on the hook for an estimated $950 million, even after reimbursements.

Miami sells $50 million of revenue bonds next week to qualified investors to refinance a loan used to pay a portion of building underwater tunnels to the Port of Miami.

President Obama should seek federally-subsidized infrastructure bonds, a national infrastructure bank, and standardization of state tolling authority to help accomplish his infrastructure investment goals, the Center for American Progress said in a new report.

Standard and Poor’s assigned a BBB-minus rating to a $300 million Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan for the 95 Express Lanes in Virginia.

Kentucky has chosen Walsh Construction Co. to build the so-called “downtown crossing,” Kentucky’s share of the massive Ohio River Bridges Project.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal will seek an additional $50 million in funding for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project

Michigan senators Tuesday approved a bill that is part of a larger legislative package to create a bond-issuing regional transit system for the Detroit metro area.

The Ohio Department of Transportation last week issued a request for qualifications from firms interested in partnering on the state’s first public-private partnership project, a $332 million bridge in downtown Cleveland.

Rep. Bill Shuster appears to have secured his chairmanship of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee after receiving the blessing of current chairman John Mica.