Transportation industry

CHICAGO - Chicago would receive $2.52 billion under a pioneering lease agreement that, if approved by city and federal authorities, would hand over operations of Midway Airport to a private consortium - Midway Investment and Development Co. LLC - for 99 years, Mayor Richard Daley announced yesterday.

DALLAS - Utah lawmakers are bracing for a difficult regular legislative session in January after covering a $354 million budget shortfall in a special session last week.

Congress over the weekend approved and delivered to President Bush a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government at current levels for more than five months and authorize $6.5 billion of bond-related community development funds. But a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus package that was approved in the House Friday seemed unlikely to get full congressional approval as of yesterday.

CHICAGO - Following Chicago's lead, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is advancing plans to pursue the privatization of Mitchell International Airport, including $500,000 in his proposed $1.4 billion 2009 budget to hire a consultant to help put together a lease deal.

DALLAS - With $756 million of debt waiting to be issued, Denver is hoping conditions might improve enough today to get one of three deals out the door.

WASHINGTON - The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for months has been planning to bring $175 million of revenue bonds to market in a negotiated deal on Wednesday. But MWAA officials, like those of many other issuers, say the pricing of their deal will depend on what, if any, action Congress takes over the weekend to quell turmoil in the financial markets.

New York plans to replace the aging Tappan Zee Bridge with a new $16 billion bridge and bus rapid transit system that would include commuter rail, the state announced Friday.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority last week reviewed different toll-increase scenarios in order to generate needed revenue.

Time is running out on a $12.8 billion proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years as the measure continues to stall in committee and could fail to receive a formal vote before the legislature's two-year session ends on Dec. 31.

Senate Democratic leaders unveiled a second economic stimulus package yesterday that would provide $56.2 billion in federal funding, including large infusions of cash to finance highway infrastructure and airport construction, and bond-related state revolving funds for wastewater projects.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service has closed an examination of $373 million of airport revenue bonds that were issued in 2005 by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission with no change to the tax-exempt status of the bonds, it was announced Wednesday.

DALLAS - Amid market upheaval and presidential warnings of a Wall Street panic, the North Texas Tollway Authority yesterday closed on $609 million of system revenue bonds as it exited a swap agreement with the defunct Lehman Brothers Derivative Products on a previous deal.

DALLAS - With construction and fuel costs soaring, metro Denver's Regional Transportation District is considering five options for covering a $2.3 billion funding shortfall for the FasTracks rail system.

Even as Chicago prepares to open a new runway at O’Hare International Airport, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration last week said future air traffic demand will require much more flight capacity in the region.

ATLANTA - Once hailed as a means to spur economic development in the Greenville, S.C.-area, the Southern Connector toll road has failed to live up to expectations and the debt issued by the Connector 2000 Association to build the road is now in jeopardy.

House Democrats are working on a continuing resolution to extend federal spending at fiscal 2008 levels through March 6, including a potential stopgap measure to continue for five months the Federal Aviation Administration's authority to provide grants that are sometimes used in conjunction with tax-exempt bonds for airport projects.

Indiana has agreed to reimburse the private operator of the Indiana Toll Road after the state waived toll fees along parts of the roadway last week to ease traffic congestion resulting from storms that flooded sections of other major roadways.

DALLAS - Rapidly growing Williamson County, Tex., hired a public relations firm to help it gather opinions on a proposal to expand a heavily used road and to articulate plans for all road projects.

Arkansas transportation officials said the state kept sufficient money on hand to make its semiannual debt payments on $575 million of outstanding highway bonds even if Congress had not shifted $8 billion into the rapidly shrinking federal Highway Trust Fund.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority will not restructure its variable-rate demand bonds for the time being despite spikes in interest rates last week, the MTA said yesterday.