Transportation industry

The Oklahoma Transportation Commission last week approved spending up to $9 million to hire nine engineering consulting firms to ensure that $180 million of road projects would be ready to go out for bids quickly if Congress approves an infrastructure stimulus package in January.

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Florida Department of Transportation on Friday suddenly pulled the plug on the long-awaited $1.2 billion Port of Miami tunnel project and said it would not close on the state's largest pubic-private partnership with the consortium known as Miami Access Tunnel.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is looking for swap counterparties that it hopes will be able to take over derivative contracts with a subsidiary of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the agency said yesterday.

Lawmakers last week conducted a second public hearing on Massachusetts’ transportation financing woes and Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to consolidate existing authorities.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last Monday won another round in an ongoing fight to stop the Bush administration from auctioning flight slots at its airports when the U.S. Court of Appeals granted it a stay.

WASHINGTON - To fill the void left by bond insurers, highly rated states and authorities should consider providing a temporary guarantee or credit enhancement to lower-rated issuers that cannot access the municipal market at reasonable rates for transportation projects, market participants said at a conference here last week.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey proposed a record $3.3 billion of capital spending in 2009 as part of a $6.71 billion preliminary budget released yesterday. Slightly more than half of the capital program would be financed through bonds and notes.

WASHINGTON - State and local governments must be given federal assistance through tax code revisions, stimulus legislation, and financial aid to help with operational costs, governors from New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin told the House Appropriations Committee at a hearing here yesterday.

Senators late yesterday were trying to determine if they had enough votes to approve automaker bailout legislation containing provisions that could prevent 31 transit agencies from having to make $2 billion to $4 billion in termination payments on leaseback deals that technically defaulted after their guarantors' ratings were downgraded.

CHICAGO - Indiana will collect nearly $1 billion less revenue than originally expected during its upcoming 2009-2011 biennium, fiscal analysts warned yesterday.

WASHINGTON - State revolving funds that rely on investment returns to subsidize loans should be worried about unexpected losses in liquidity and declining future returns, Moody's Investors Service analysts said in a report yesterday.

New Jersey's Local Finance Board yesterday authorized a portion of Bayonne's mixed-use Peninsula Project New York Harbor for tax increment financing, the first step in gaining state approval for such borrowing.

DALLAS - After years of sweating transportation dollars, state and local governments in Texas are quickly lining up projects that might be eligible for a federal stimulus package proposed by President-elect Barack Obama.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority yesterday approved $500 million of long- and short-term borrowing to help it address auction-rate debt.

The Michigan Senate last week approved a package of bills paving the way for a $103 million light-rail transit line on one of Detroit’s main thoroughfares.

WASHINGTON - Draft legislation to bail out automakers includes a provision that would require the federal government to guarantee leaseback deals that transit agencies entered into with private investors and that were approved by the Federal Transit Administration before 2006.

The Second District Appellate Court in Elgin last week heard arguments by the Chicago suburb of Bensenville seeking a halt to the demolition of 500 properties to make room for a new runway at O’Hare International Airport. The project is part of a $7.5 billion runway expansion that is being partially financed with bonds.

DALLAS - Lafayette Parish, La., would replace much of its deteriorating rural road network with proceeds from a proposed $26 million general obligation bond sale.

While President-Elect Barack Obama has directed his economic recovery team to develop a plan to invest in infrastructure nationwide, create millions of jobs, modernize schools, and make buildings more energy-efficient, both the details of the plan and the extent to which municipal bonds may play a role are unclear.

WASHINGTON - The problems facing transportation infrastructure financing are so expansive that all options must be considered, including public-private partnerships and a possible alternative to the federal gas tax to fund the highway trust fund, JPMorgan's Jane Garvey said Sunday at a conference here.