Transportation industry

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Birmingham Airport Authority, which operates the largest airport in Alabama, expects to be in the municipal market next week to offer new-money bonds for the first time in several years.

WASHINGTON - Chicago asked the Federal Aviation Administration to extend until July 31 the deadline on its application to privatize Midway International Airport.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Although Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott has yet to take a position on the fate of high-speed rail, the state agency overseeing the project is moving toward seeking qualified consortiums to build the $2.6 billion Tampa-to-Orlando line.

CHICAGO — The Wayne County Airport Authority will begin refunding more than $1 billion of senior-lien general airport revenue bonds Monday to achieve interest-rate savings and take advantage of the federal alternative-minimum tax holiday.

Michigan officials said the state’s road construction budget could be chopped in half by 2012 due to falling gas tax revenues.

Tulsa will issue $59 million of general obligation bonds in January to finance its continuing effort to repair and maintain streets.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is set to issue $263 million of sales-tax debt this week or next to help finance capital projects and restructure existing debt for immediate savings.

Port authorities are pushing for Congress to reauthorize a five-year program that provides them with millions of dollars of federal grants.

DALLAS — Transportation officials are considering funding options for a $4.4 billion expansion of Interstate 35E between Dallas and Denton that could be the largest of several major projects in the area.

The Kenton County Airport Board was hit by two downgrades last week.

A Cook County Circuit Court judge earlier this month denied Chicago’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the legality of its $1.15 billion, 75-year lease of its parking meter system to Chicago Parking Meters LLC.

DALLAS — A new issuer known as the Colorado Bridge Enterprise joins the December rush to market next week with $300 million of taxable and tax-exempt debt.

CHICAGO — Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded to Baa1 from A3 its rating on Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport, warning that the airport faces pressure from declining enplanements and airline revenue.

CHICAGO — Minnesota’s Counties Transit Improvement Board last week advanced plans for a $110 million bond sale by Hennepin County that would mark the first borrowing repaid by a special quarter-cent sales tax imposed in 2008 on the five-county Twin Cities region to support transit.

Ambac Assurance Corp. is close to reaching a settlement that would wipe away more than $500 million of exposure to revenue bonds issued by the Nevada Department of Business and Industry for the Las Vegas Monorail, according to its regulator Thursday.

CHICAGO — Hoping to capitalize on the lull in supply slated for this week, Wisconsin will take competitive bids Monday on $200 million of transportation revenue bonds in a deal that includes a mix of tax-exempt securities and taxable Build America Bonds.

DALLAS — Recommendations on how to finance improvements to Arkansas highways and local roads include $1.8 billion of revenue bonds supported by a dedicated 0.5% state sales tax.

California, New York, and Illinois are making a play for more than $1.2 billion of high-speed rail funding that was awarded to two Midwestern states whose Republican governors-elect plan to reject the grants.

States and localities pay for a much larger share of transportation and water infrastructure projects than the federal government, but in recent years the total amount of money spent on these projects by all levels of government has declined significantly, according to a 62-page report issued this week by the Congressional Budget Office.

Drivers on the Highway 520 floating bridge over Lake Washington could be paying tolls by spring.