Transportation industry

CHICAGO - Chicago will give the private consortium that wants to lease the city's Midway Airport for 99 years for an up-front payment of $2.5 billion up to an additional six months to put its financing scheme together.

CHICAGO - Ohio lawmakers were poised to vote late yesterday on a $9.6 billion, two-year state transportation budget that would include a new bond program as well as expanded authority for the state to enter into public-private partnerships to raise revenue.

SAN FRANCISCO - Transportation projects are in front of the line as California disburses the larger than expected proceeds of last week's general obligation bond sale.

A state legislative panel approved a request from the Ohio Department of Transportation to set aside $450,000 in funding to study the cost of setting up passenger rail service among the state’s major cities.

DALLAS - The Oklahoma Transportation Commission on Monday awarded $228.4 million of construction contracts financed by money the state will receive from the $787 billion federal infrastructure stimulus plan.

DALLAS - Development of a $1.5 billion DFW Connector project is expected to begin this year to funnel traffic to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport within five years.

J. Randolph "Randy" Babbitt, a longtime pilot and aviation consultant, will be nominated by President Obama to be the new chief of the Federal Aviation Administration under the Department of Transportation, the White House said Friday.

WASHINGTON - The airport sector's troubled credit outlook will continue into 2010, and airport issuers' will likely experience more ratings downgrades and negative outlook actions during that time, Fitch Ratings warned in a report yesterday. However, it said the downgrades probably won't be worse than one or two notches.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to come to market tomorrow with $163 million of variable-rate airport system revenue bonds backed by a standby bond purchase agreement from Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg.

With a planned $85.7 million offering Wednesday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will stick with its strategy of doing smaller but more frequent competitive deals, given that the market remains challenging for bigger bond issues.

CHICAGO - At least three of Ohio's six port authority bond fund programs are grappling with delinquent borrowers who are struggling to repay loans from the funds in the declining economy.

House members this week are set to take up a transportation reform bill after the Senate passed the measure last week in a vote of 39 to 1.

WASHINGTON - An increase to the passenger facilities charge that would fill airport coffers with more than $1 billion dollars in additional revenue each year could be included in a long-delayed aviation bill, but a House-proposed 55% increase may be unlikely because of political obstacles in the Senate, congressional staffers said Friday.

Gov. Martin O’Malley last week announced that Maryland was the first state to meet requirements that will allow it to use at least half of its $431 million of highway funding provided by the stimulus package.

WASHINGTON — Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday that it will maintain its negative outlook on U.S. airports for the next 12 to 18 months because of the economic crisis, and that unfavorable industry trends will put downward pressure on airport credit ratings.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer Monday received the California State Parks Foundation’s Legacy Award at a Monday ceremony for his efforts to block an Orange County toll road.

Gov. Sarah Palin has appointed a substitute teacher to serve on the board of the Alaska Railroad.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday approved fare and toll hikes and service cutbacks to close a $1.2 billion budget gap as the Legislature failed to agree on a rescue plan.

The House and Senate budget committees yesterday began laying the groundwork for federal spending for the next five years, although any budget resolution resulting from the proposals in both chambers would not set legislative specifics and would only be intended as a blueprint.

Fitch Ratings yesterday returned $2.1 billion of Massachusetts Turnpike Authority debt to negative watch after the authority on Tuesday postponed a toll increase set for this week that would have generated $100 million annually.