Transportation industry

Three cities appealed on Friday to the Treasury Department for assistance under its $700 billion financial rescue plan authority, while airports continued their push for federal legislative help to make private-activity bonds more accessible for financing projects.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Friday approved toll hikes that will generate nearly $100 million of additional revenue for the authority to help meet operating needs and rising debt service costs.

There's no denying the importance of infrastructure. But the traditional infrastructure model has become problematic. The growing need to repair or replace aging infrastructure in transportation, utilities, telecommunications, and other sectors has soared to record levels in recent years. At the same time, the cost of building materials is skyrocketing, and local, state, and federal governments are faced with declining tax revenues and higher borrowing costs.

DALLAS - Kansas will not award approximately $200 million of anticipated highway construction contracts over the next two months due to concerns that actual and expected declines in state and federal funding impair its ability complete the work.

SAN FRANCISCO - Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski this week proposed billions of dollars in transportation spending to stimulate the economy and rebuild the state's transportation infrastructure.

SAN FRANCISCO - This month, California voters issued a mandate for a high-speed passenger train system linking the southern part of the state with the San Francisco region.

WASHINGTON - The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and a Belgian bank failed to reach an agreement yesterday that would unwind a leaseback deal in exchange for a $17 million payment from the transit agency, but the parties will return to federal court for a third day this morning to continue negotiations.

WASHINGTON - A U.S. District Court judge yesterday pressed KBC Bank NV of Belgium to accept a settlement to unwind a leaseback arrangement with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in exchange for a $17 million payment from a trust account kept by the transit agency for lease payments on the deal.

DALLAS - The Oklahoma Department of Transportation will get back into the debt market next week with a negotiated sale of $98.3 million of grant anticipation notes after delaying the deal for a month.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority could vote on potential toll increases this Friday to help offset growing debt service costs as state officials continue to map out legislation that would allow MassPike to be dismantled and folded into two other agencies.

WASHINGTON - The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority officials met with the Federal Reserve late Monday in a last-ditch effort to urge them to step in as guarantor on a leaseback deal the agency entered into with a Belgian bank. The move came just ahead of a U.S. District Court hearing today that will decide whether WMATA should remit a $43 million termination payment to the bank on the deal.

Chicago’s proposed $2.5 billion lease of Midway Airport to private operators is on a glide path to win Federal Aviation Administration approval possibly before the end of the year following a required public hearing on the deal last weekend.

At the request of the Federal Transit Administration, New Jersey officials increased the estimated cost of a new passenger-rail tunnel that will run between Newark and Manhattan to $8.7 billion, a $1.1 billion boost from the project's earlier cost estimate.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has to close a $1.2 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, MTA officials said at a special finance committee meeting yesterday.

CHICAGO - As General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. reported grim third-quarter earnings Friday, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm warned that the state, just a few weeks into its fiscal year, already could face a deficit reaching up to $600 million.

Fitch Ratings last week changed its outlook on the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to stable from negative, citing recently approved toll increases that will help liquidity and fund needed capital improvements.

Amid continued strong demand and recent firmness that saw some yields decline as much as 12 basis points in spots during new-issue pricing last week, a $750 million revenue offering from the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund Authority will further test the strength of the market this week.

WASHINGTON - Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority officials on Friday made an urgent plea to the Treasury Department to prevent it from having to make a $43 million termination payment on a leaseback deal, just as the Belgian bank demanding the payment was expected to urge a federal court here not to block the payment.

After nearly three years of overseeing New Jersey's roads, bridges, and mass transit systems, Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri will head the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, a revamped agency that many hope will move away from its previous history of fiscal mismanagement.

WASHINGTON - Credit agencies are monitoring their ratings on transit agency leaseback transactions at a time when they are at growing risk of having to cough up billions of dollars as lease agreements with private investors go into default because of insurers' rating downgrades.