Transportation industry

Pennsylvania officials are debating whether to resubmit to federal officials an application to implement tolls on Interstate 80 or look to alternative revenue enhancers as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission continues its payments to the state.

DALLAS - The state Legislature's failure to approve $2 billion of bonds for the Texas Department of Transportation and uncertainty over the agency's future could force Gov. Rick Perry to call a special session, lawmakers said yesterday.

WASHINGTON - State and local issuers could be awarded as much as $1.5 billion in discretionary grants, loans, and other credit assistance as early as this fall, under the new stimulus law.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority's heavy reliance on debt to finance its capital program will put increased pressure on its operating budget, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a report yesterday.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation yesterday said it had reached agreement on the business terms of a concession contract with the consortium Miami Access Tunnel to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain the $1.2 billion Port of Miami Tunnel project.

New York Gov. David Paterson yesterday created a board to oversee the development and implementation of public-private partnership demonstration projects.

SAN FRANCISCO - Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski plans to sign a transportation infrastructure package that will raise $300 million annually to pay debt service on bonds and to fund local spending on roads, bridges, and public transit.

DALLAS - The time line for building a toll-financed roadway along the Trinity River corridor in downtown Dallas got a 20-month setback Monday.

DALLAS - A local option tax for transportation projects in major urban areas appeared doomed Monday as this year's session of the Texas Legislature came to a close.

Officials last week cut the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s fiscal 2010 budget by $160 million to balance the spending plan.

Imagine Downtown Inc., an affiliate of the Atlanta Development Authority and Central Atlanta Progress, announced Tuesday that it had closed on the first New Market Tax Credits loan for Aerotropolis Atlanta, a project adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that will include a regional job and retail complex.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., has introduced legislation to establish a National Infrastructure Development Bank that could issue "public benefit bonds" exempt from state and local taxes to finance infrastructure projects over the next 15 years.

New Jersey will offer in the next few weeks nearly $1 billion of refunding and new-money debt backed by the state.

DALLAS - Legislation to transform the way Texas allocates funding for highway projects was caught in a backlog of bills yesterday as the state Legislature neared the end of its 2009 session.

CHICAGO - With a long-sought, nearly $29 billion capital budget headed to his desk, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Friday said he won't endorse the package before work is also completed on ethics reforms and an operating budget that includes an income tax increase to help close a record $12 billion deficit.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has introduced a bill that would prohibit states, private parties and others from adding tolls on existing toll-free federal highways, bridges and tunnels built with federal funding.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The North Carolina Turnpike Authority received its first ratings as it plans the upcoming issuance of $636 million of debt for its first toll road project - the 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway around Raleigh.

A panel of experts created by the 2009 Arkansas General Assembly to study ways of financing upgrades and improvements to the state’s road network met last week at the capitol for its first meeting.

BRADENTON, Fla. - For the second time in a month, Moody's Investors Service Friday placed one of Florida's highly rated credits on watch for possible downgrade.

DALLAS — The Louisiana State Bond Commission gave its go-ahead on Thursday to the third segment in a series of variable-rate fuel tax bonds that will provide a total of $485 million in proceeds this year to a constitutionally mandated road and bridge program.