Transportation industry

DALLAS — The Dallas City Council on Wednesday approved the sale by a special local government corporation of up to $500 million of special facilities revenue bonds to finance upgrades at Love Field, the city-owned airport located near downtown.

DALLAS — Denver will commit up to $8 million per year for 20 years to secure a $300 million federal loan for redeveloping its Union Station train terminal as a hub for an ambitious mass-transit system.

MINNEAPOLIS — The highway trust fund will face another funding crisis by August, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman James Oberstar warned at a town hall here yesterday.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority hopes to return to deals structured with level debt service when it goes to market next week, its staff said yesterday. The agency plans to sell $650 million of transportation revenue bonds as a mix of tax-exempt bonds and taxable Build America Bonds on Feb. 3.

CHICAGO — Ohio would create up to 24 new bond-issuing authorities across the state with the ability to impose tolls to finance transportation projects under a bill the House passed last week.

Newly installed Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn wants to ask voters to approve a $241 million bond measure to replace the deteriorating seawall along the city’s waterfront.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next month on the creation of a national infrastructure bank, chairman Christopher J. Dodd said yesterday.

The New York State Thruway Authority authorized up to $1 billion of bonds secured by the state’s second general resolution dedicated highway and bridge trust fund at its monthly board meeting yesterday.

Miami commissioners late last week approved the sale of $92 million of bonds to build parking facilities for the Florida Marlins’ new baseball stadium, which is under construction.

Detroit businessman Manuel Maroun, who owns the only bridge spanning the busy trade route between Detroit and Canada, has bought a piece of land that could complicate a government plan to build a second bridge across the river.

This week’s largest financings include deals in the health care, transportation, and environmental sectors that are expected to price as part of an estimated $5.44 billion in volume, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority will begin consolidating internal departments and maximizing its resources to produce savings and make the system more efficient, agency chairman and chief executive officer Jay Walder announced Friday.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Finance Authority gave preliminary approval this week to the Seneca I-80 Railport Development LLC’s proposed $576 million issue. The move advances development efforts for the proposed freight-transfer facility that is seeking an allocation of tax-exempt, private activity bonding under the federal government’s $15 billion pilot program.

WASHINGTON — More than $200 million of toll revenue bonds issued by the Connector 2000 Association Inc. for a 16-mile toll road in Greenville County, S.C., defaulted on Jan. 1, in what sources said is the first public-private partnership default in the state.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Las Vegas Monorail Co., which has more than $600 million of municipal bonds outstanding, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday.

The Bay Area Toll Authority’s oversight committee on Wednesday approved toll hikes on the seven state owned toll bridges in the San Francisco Area. The toll hikes must now be approved by the Oakland-based agency’s full board.

The Obama administration is working with Congress on a multi-year transportation bill that it expects will cost between $400 billion to $500 billion, Transportation Department Secretary Ray LaHood said at a conference here yesterday.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to repeat a novel approach to accessing low rates at a time when liquidity costs makes traditional variable-rate financing pricey.

CHICAGO — Faced with rising debt service costs and sagging tourism revenues, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority will ask Illinois lawmakers who return to work today for the power to restructure its debt and extend a state debt-service subsidy.

A committee of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority last week recommended selling $30 million of tax-exempt bonds to jump-start a privately run $278 million development project along the Cuyahoga River.