Transportation industry

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.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley last week replaced his chief of staff Paul Volpe with Raymond Orozco, who had led the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Volpe will become budget director of the Chicago Transit Authority.

DALLAS — The Port of Houston Authority of Harris County will take advantage of its highly rated credit tomorrow by offering $327 million of refunding bonds, a deal that comes amid major expansion plans for one of the nation’s busiest cargo and petro-chemical facilities.

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters joined a push by House lawmakers yesterday to revamp the federal transportation funding system, which currently has “donor states” such as Texas paying more into the federal highway trust fund than they get back.

The Court of Federal Claims has rejected Wells Fargo & Co.’s attempt to claim a $115 million tax deduction stemming from 26 sale-in, lease-out transactions, 17 of which involved public transit agencies, saying that the deals lacked economic substance.

The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission is working on a new $310 million bridge to replace the current Interstate 95/Scudder Falls Bridge that connects New Jersey and Pennsylvania and is more than 50 years old.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority should prioritize which services could be restored if the New York Legislature finds additional funding, a state lawmaker said at a hearing yesterday.

Lower-than-expected construction bids have led the Idaho Transportation Board to reduce its latest request for Garvee bond authority.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Miami-Dade County next week plans to offer $600 million of aviation revenue bonds to continue financing for a major capital improvement program at Miami International Airport that is nearing completion.

DALLAS — The funding gap for the Denver area’s FasTracks transit plan has grown to $2.5 billion — a $300 million increase since 2009 — even though the construction cost estimate has fallen by nearly the same amount, according to the Regional Transportation District.

WASHINGTON — The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority yesterday announced a financing team for $250 million to $600 million of bonds it plans to sell in the spring to help finance the Dulles International Airport Metrorail extension.