Transportation industry

WASHINGTON — The Maryland Department of Transportation on Wednesday expects to competitively sell $140 million of bonds, including what could be MDOT’s first Build America Bonds.

MIAMI — With a clear need to invest in infrastructure and a large budget deficit, Puerto Rico is poised to launch its first public-private partnership projects.

Citigroup has priced a $165 million private placement deal for the Bahamas' Nassau Airport, a sell-side source said.

DALLAS — Corpus Christi International Airport is in danger of losing its investment-grade rating amid declining enplanements, Standard & Poor’s warned yesterday.

The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority will ask the Louisiana State Bond Commission to approve a $75 million offering to help finance a $165 million expansion of the city’s streetcar system.

Atlanta’s mass transit provider MARTA last week announced fare increases as well as reductions in staff and service in conjunction with the presentation of a fiscal 2011 budget.

The Michigan Supreme Court Friday handed state transportation officials a victory when it upheld a ruling requiring Manuel Moroun, the owner of the Ambassador Bridge, to rebuild the ramps and approaches leading to the span. The ruling could pave the way for forcing Maroun to conform to designs by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

DALLAS — Arkansas will refund three series of highway bonds with this week’s negotiated sale of $256.97 million of five-year general obligation bonds that will lower debt-service costs in fiscal 2011 by an anticipated $11 million.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida last week received $66.6 million out of $80 million in federal grants distributed by the U.S. Department of Transportation for high-speed rail development.

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson traveled across the state last week for ceremonial signings of a long-term, $8.2 billion transportation program. The effort will be financed with proceeds from an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue bonds, a portion of a 1% sales tax increase, and higher fees for heavy trucks.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wednesday celebrated the completion of a $737 million project to renovate the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.

WASHINGTON — Virginia is reviewing its public-private partnership program to ensure the state can most efficiently leverage private funds as its transportation revenues have dwindled amid the economic recession.

WASHINGTON — The House was poised late Thursday to consider an amendment to the tax-extenders package that would slightly alter the distribution of nearly $1 billion to states for transportation projects.

CHICAGO — The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority plans in early to mid-June to sell $400 million of refunding bonds as it moves to shift a chunk of synthetic floating-to-fixed-rate debt to a traditional fixed-rate structure to reduce bank and liquidity risks.

LOS ANGELES — The first public-private partnership project under a program championed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently cleared a major procedural hurdle, though questions remain over whether the Presidio Parkway project is the right way to use P3s.

An analysis of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s first public-private partnership outlines significant economic development benefits for the Atlanta metropolitan area and the state as a whole.

A Michigan House subcommittee last week approved three bills that would authorize a bond-issuing regional authority to oversee a 400-mile mass transit system running throughout the Detroit area.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority could sell revenue anticipation notes to fill a hole caused by New York’s withholding of subsidies, officials said at a finance committee meeting yesterday. This month the state has withheld $275 million of certain aid payments to the MTA, officials said.

A group of senators led by Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., were poised late yesterday to introduce legislation that would provide public transit systems across the country with $2 billion of emergency operating funds to help ease the strain on their budgets.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Murphy ­McCalley has joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as a director in its transportation group, the firm announced Friday.