Transportation industry

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.

Moody's Investors Service assigned a negative outlook last week to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority's outstanding limited-tax general obligation debt, saying it faces a number of economic and fiscal challenges, including depleted reserves and a steep decline in its main revenue source.

A DuPage County Circuit Court judge last week handed over the title of St. Johannes Cemetery to Chicago, advancing the city's effort to clear a path for one of several new runways planned as part of the $8 billion expansion of O'Hare International Airport.

WASHINGTON — The South Carolina-based issuer of $322.5 million of toll road revenue bonds that are in default appears to be preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to a disclosure ­document.

WASHINGTON — A mileage-based revenue system to fund federally assisted transportation projects could be implemented within about five years, the RAND Corp. said in a report released online last week.

SAN FRANCISCO — Voters in two counties north of San Francisco gave overwhelming support in 2008 to a ballot measure taxing themselves to build a new commuter train line.

CHICAGO — The Chicago Transit Authority board this week signed off on the agency’s planned sale of $550 million of sales tax-backed, mostly taxable Build America Bonds to finance the acquisition of new rail cars.

CHICAGO — A central Indiana task force yesterday unveiled a nearly $10 billion regional transportation plan that recommends imposing a local sales tax and building express toll lanes to help keep Indianapolis competitive in the Midwest.

The Georgia State Transportation Board last Friday voted 9 to 2 to rescind a prior decision that would have changed the way the Georgia Department of Transportation conducts its accounting practice, a spokeswoman said.

Moody’s Investors Service issued a report this week warning that it remains pessimistic about airports and is keeping a negative outlook based on expectations for the next 12 to 18 months.

Over the past three years, 38 of Michigan’s counties have returned their roads to gravel because they lacked the money needed to maintain their paved infrastructure — and this year nearly half of the state’s counties will be faced with making the same decision, the County Road Association of Michigan warned last week.