Transportation industry

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An end may be in sight for the two-year old bankruptcy of the Las Vegas Monorail Co., albeit at a steep price for bondholders.

WASHINGTON — The Senate narrowly approved a proposal to prohibit the use of private-activity bond financing on certain toll roads as they inched toward final passage of a two-year, $109 billion highway reauthorization bill Tuesday.

Faculty at Ohio State University last week voted against the administration’s plan to privatize its parking system.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation released a revised cost estimate of $626 million on building the St. Croix River Crossing bridge project.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday announced state funding of $32 million for the construction of a new transportation-related education center at the City Colleges of Chicago’s Olive-Harvey campus.