Transportation industry

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, the governing body for Los Angeles World Airports, this week approved the sale of up to $1.625 billion of revenue bonds for Los Angeles International Airport.

Transportation officials and an advocacy group in Virginia are battling over whether a Virginia or District of Columbia judge should decide whether drivers on the Dulles Toll Road are being illegally charged tolls used to back bonds issued for the Dulles Metrorail project.

Massachusetts Wednesday announced that it has resolved a termination event on the fifth and final Massachusetts Turnpike Authority swap with UBS Securities LLC as counterparty.

The Charleston County Airport District’s outstanding revenue bonds were upgraded last week to A1 from A2 by Moody’s Investors Service despite a negative outlook on the airport sector, which the agency expects to maintain through early 2010. The airport has $13.3 million of rated debt outstanding.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Oakland-based Bay Area Toll Authority plans to sell $1.3 billion in its first taxable Build America Bond deal next week.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is seeking investment banking services, as the agency could refinance fixed-rate bonds associated with $800 million of floating-to-fixed-rate swaps.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation’s inspector general is warning that at least 10 airport improvement program grants distributed by the Federal Aviation Administration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act “may have questionable economic merit or could involve recipients that have had grant management problems.”

BRADENTON, Fla. — The $1 billion Port of Miami Tunnel project Thursday reached financial closing — a conclusion that took nearly four years due to economic challenges, political problems, and diminished access to credit for large transportation-related public-private partnerships.

The Federal Railroad Administration last week released an early draft of a national rail plan that includes alternative-financing strategies that could involve bonds.

Construction costs for an major part of the New Haven Rail Yard could come in lower than recent estimates, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell said last week. The lowest construction bid for a 293,000-square-foot maintenance facility to service newer Metro-North commuter trains came in at $124.8 million from O&G Industries of Torrington. The most recent estimate of the “change-out” where the trains will be maintained had been put at $291.5 million by a firm hired last year.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority plans tomorrow to sell its first Build America Bond deal, set for $213.8 million, after offering $39.3 million of traditional tax-exempt debt to retail investors today.

WASHINGTON — Rail advocates are urging the federal government to partner with states to develop a national high-speed rail network. The partnership should be modeled after the Interstate highway system, and Washington should share the costs of projects and create a dedicated funding source similar to the federal highway trust fund, they told members of the House Transportation rail subcommittee Wednesday afternoon.

Washington motorists appear willing to ante up to make up for budget cuts to state parks.

DALLAS — Regional transportation planners in the Phoenix area will take the first step toward a rail link to the western suburb of Glendale next week with the $878,000 study of the new route.

Atlanta officials announced Friday that in preparation for the upcoming sale of debt for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, a due-diligence review found a number of errors in classifying expenses dating back to 2003.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority broke state law when it agreed to new sale terms for the Vanderbilt rail yards in Brooklyn, plaintiffs allege in a suit filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida Department of Transportation Secretary ­Stephanie Kopelousos said this week that her agency has received the necessary letter of credit from Miami for a portion of its funding for the $1 billion Port of Miami Tunnel project.

The Federal Railroad Administration was so swamped with applications for the $8 billion of high-speed rail funding authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that it is delaying until the winter its announcement of the grant winners.

DALLAS — With tolling options closed, the Texas Transportation Commission is considering funding sources for a $2.2 billion expansion of heavily traveled Interstate 35 to six lanes from San Antonio to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The Chicago Transit Authority this week proposed a $1.3 billion 2010 budget that relies on a fare hike, service cuts, other spending reductions, and dipping into capital funding to eliminate a $300 million operating deficit.