Transportation industry

Charlotte Douglas International Airport plans to start laying the groundwork toward building a fifth runway at a cost of $160 million.

The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority has named interim director Max Crumit to be the Florida agency's permanent leader.

Firms from four countries as well as the U.S. expressed interest in participating in a public-private partnership to construct a street car system in the District of Columbia.

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded $41.1 million of transportation improvement bonds issued by the Butler County Transportation Improvement District, Ohio, to A from AA-minus. The outlook is negative.

Tax-increment financing is an increasingly popular model for cities looking to finance mass transit development, but participants in such projects said Thursday that economic conditions have created several significant challenges for TIF undertakings.

Gov. John Kasich, who has made privatization of state assets a top priority, announced that the state will embark on its first P3 with the construction of a new bridge in downtown Cleveland.

The GOP 2012 platform, scheduled to be approved at the party's national convention Tuesday, includes several familiar tax proposals and a handful of initiatives to encourage more private sector involvement in infrastructure finance.

The Southern Environmental Law Center Tuesday filed a federal suit on behalf of conservation groups challenging North Carolina's $1 billion Garden Parkway toll road.

A new projection produced by the Congressional Budget Office shows that both the highway trust fund and transit account, key sources of federal transportation funding, will run out of money in fiscal year 2015 under the recently enacted transportation law.

Australia-based infrastructure development giant Macquarie Capital will advise San Juan, P.R. in its quest to put together a light rail public-private partnership that has been estimated at $400 million, the city announced Monday.

Moody's called a court ruling invalidating the New York MTA's payroll mobility tax a credit negative, while Standard & Poor's is maintaining its credit rating.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority needs "net-zero" settlements with its labor union and to implement fare and toll increases to keep budget gaps from resurfacing and rising, Fitch Ratings said.

A federal bankruptcy court judge signed an order authorizing American Airline's assumption of its Tulsa maintenance base sublease, paving the way for the bond trustee on $237 million of debt to soon resume payments.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board on Thursday approved new pools of underwriters as it gears up to enter the market with a roughly $200 million issue to launch a $12 billion, 15-year capital program.

Revenue forecasts are an inexact science, but they are a critical part of the rapidly-expanding network of toll roads. When market participants over-rely on them, the result can be a financial meltdown.

American Airlines and the trustee on $237 million of revenue bonds issued for the airline's Tulsa maintenance base will ask the bankruptcy court to approve a settlement.

The Kansas Department of Transportation reduced its commercial liquidity exposure with Tuesday's negotiated sale of $151.4 million of highway revenue refunding bonds.

The Detroit-Wayne County Airport Authority comes to market this week with new-money and refunding airport revenue bonds.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is expected to sell $810 million of refunding bonds in the week's largest municipal bond sale.

Four transportation projects will be expedited as part of the president's "We Can't Wait" program, the Obama Administration announced this week, including the $3.5 billion Columbia River Crossing linking Vancouver, Wash. and Portland, Ore.