Transportation industry

Fitch Ratings last week downgraded $103 million of Massachusetts Port Authority special facilities revenue bonds to BBB from A-minus. The outlook is stable.

WASHINGTON — A Fitch Ratings report released this month lengthens the shadow cast over transportation credits by the economic downturn. However, the agency predicted an eventual upturn for seaports.

Lower revenues have hit Washington’s largely gas-tax funded transportation budget, but they’ve been offset somewhat by lower construction bids and favorable capital markets, according to a report Tuesday from the chair of the state House Transportation Committee, Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday took a step toward cashless tolling at its six state border crossings. The agency approved the design and construction of a new $175 million toll collection system at its monthly board meeting.

The House and Senate are hurtling toward a deadline this weekend to extend the current surface transportation law, but bills pending in each chamber differ significantly in how funds would be allocated to the states.

The Illinois Regional Transportation Authority last week warned that additional service cuts are looming if the state doesn’t soon make good on $250 million in aid payments owed to the agency.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved the sale next month of $500 million of dedicated tax fund bonds at its finance committee meeting yesterday. Pending approval by the full board tomorrow, most or all of the bonds will be marketed as taxable Build America Bonds.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last week appointed Sen. Bill Baroni to serve as deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New ­Jersey.

The Massachusetts Port Authority plans to issue $110 million of private-activity bonds before the end of 2010 to take advantage of the federal government’s temporary suspension of the alternate minimum tax for such deals.

CHICAGO — The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission enters the market this week with $185 million of Garvee bonds to complete the financing of its Safe and Sound bridge program and to fund its share of a new span across the Mississippi River.

BRADENTON, Fla. — On the heels of an upgrade for its Garvees, Kentucky tomorrow plans to sell $90 million of the debt for work related to its share of the massive $4.1 billion Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project.

New Jersey Acting Treasurer Andrew Eristoff Thursday told a Senate committee that the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority may refund bonds to help generate needed borrowing capacity in fiscal 2011.

The Washington Senate Tuesday approved a bill that sponsors say will allow the state to move forward with plans for a toll-financed replacement of the Highway 520 floating bridge over Lake Washington.

State and local transportation authorities in more than 40 states will receive a total of $1.5 billion in grant or loan subsidy funds to support 51 projects that range from port revitalization to toll roads and streetcars.

NJ Transit may increase fares on buses and trains as early as May to help absorb a $33 million funding cut from the state and help plug a projected fiscal 2011 deficit of nearly $300 million.

The Michigan Department of Transportation says a report released this week confirms the need for a proposed $2.3 billion, bond-financed bridge spanning the busy trade route between Detroit and Canada.

Atlanta BeltLine Inc.'s board of directors last week selected lead designers for the BeltLine project and established the basis for future design and construction, the agency announced.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation plans to announce the award of stimulus grants to help fund more than 50 projects across the country, senior Obama administration officials said Tuesday.

A bankruptcy judge in Las Vegas is scheduled to hear arguments today over whether or not the Las Vegas Monorail Co. really is an independent nonprofit that is entitled to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Federal officials, citing a failure to adequately study the civil rights impacts of the project, have followed through on a threat to withdraw a $70 million stimulus grant that was to help finance a rail link between Oakland International Airport and the nearest Bay Area Rapid Transit District train station.