Transportation industry

WASHINGTON — Congress is expected as early as this week to take up a $446.8 billion appropriations act for fiscal 2010 that would provide more high-speed rail funds than the Obama administration had requested, along with highway and other transportation infrastructure funds and bond-related community development block grants.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Georgia Department of Transportation plans to offer its first public-private partnership concession earlier than planned next year with two metro Atlanta interstate highway projects estimated to cost more than $2 billion.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Florida Legislature late Tuesday finished work on a bill enacting a statewide comprehensive passenger rail policy and providing funds for existing and new rail projects.

New York City has nearly selected all the projects for its $121 million allocation of Recovery Zone facility bonds, pending board approval, the conduit issuer said yesterday.

DALLAS — The North Tarrant Express, a $2 billion toll road project that represents one of the largest public-private partnerships in Texas, begins its financial history clinging to investment-grade ­ratings.

President Obama’s announcement yesterday of his administration’s job-creation plan added momentum to the push by municipal market participants for any forthcoming jobs bill to include infrastructure spending and aid to states.

DALLAS — Austin may be moving toward a $600 million bond election as the City Council considers ways to build a light-rail system.

Fitch Ratings this week downgraded its rating to BBB-minus from BBB-plus on the Summit County Port Authority bond fund’s outstanding $40.2 million of revenue bonds. The debt remains on negative negative at the lower rating.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn last week named Chicago-based public finance banker Maria Saldana to a four-year term on the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board.

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Florida House yesterday passed a bill adopting a statewide passenger rail policy and creating a commission to oversee existing and new rail projects.

A $50 million cut in highway maintenance work will mean higher costs down the road for motorists, Kansas Transportation Secretary Deb Miller said last week.

House and Senate leaders may soon include a six-month extension of the current transportation law in an omnibus appropriations bill, as the Dec. 18 expiration date of the latest extension approaches, sources said Friday.

House transportation leaders yesterday said they will push for as much as $69 billion of infrastructure grants to states to be included in any job-creation bill that is put forward and approve an extension of the current law.

North Carolina is hoping to capitalize on the recession’s silver lining by financing highway construction with an innovative contract between the state and private contractors — a deal that could accomplish one of Gov. Beverly Perdue’s transportation goals, even though the state treasurer’s office has expressed some reservations.

The Georgia Department of Transportation today hosts an industry workshop in Atlanta about its new public-private partnership program.

The Florida Legislature begins a special session today to consider creating a statewide passenger rail policy and to approve funding for existing and new rail projects.

A coalition of transportation, environmental, and housing groups is asking House and Senate leaders to limit infrastructure programs in any forthcoming jobs bill to just one year and to direct spending toward the rehabilitation and operation of existing infrastructure instead of new construction projects.

DALLAS — New economic reality may alter the current financial plan for the Denver area’s $6.2 billion FasTracks transportation project, a consultant’s report suggests.

DALLAS — A team of developers will receive the proceeds of $400 million of private-activity bonds this month to finance one of the most ambitious public-private toll operations in Texas: a $2 billion project known as the North Tarrant Express.

WASHINGTON — High-speed rail is the “newest gravy train” in Washington, D.C., with more than 50 public and private groups having registered in the last quarter to lobby for billions of dollars of federal aid — a threefold increase from a year ago, the Center for Public Integrity found in a recent investigation.