Louisiana taps Plenary-led team for its largest P3 to date

Louisiana has tapped a consortium led by Plenary Americas as the private sector partner to negotiate a 50-year public-private partnership to replace the aging Calcasieu River bridge on Interstate 10. The project is structured as a design-build-finance-operate-maintain and will tap toll revenue along with other funds to replace the nearly 70-year-old existing bridge, which has been deemed structurally deficient, and widen the interstate along a 5.5-mile corridor.? The $2.1 billion project marks Louisiana's largest and most complex P3 so far.?

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The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has added five new members to its board and elected officers for its 2024 fiscal year, bringing Meredith Hathorn on for another term as chair and electing Ernesto Lanza, of counsel for Ballard Spahr and formerly of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as chief regulatory and policy officer. "I am grateful for the opportunity to continue working alongside my fellow board members to advance long-term initiatives that will profoundly shape the future of our market," Hathorn said.

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The investment grade of $1.2 billion of private activity bonds issued for an automated people mover train at Los Angeles International Airport is threatened. Amid delays and disputes between the airport and the private development team for the people mover, Fitch Ratings placed the BBB-minus rated senior revenue bonds on rating watch negative. The bonds The bonds were issued in 2018 through the California Municipal Finance Authority on behalf of LAX Integrated Express Solutions, LLC.

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Municipals sold off Thursday, following U.S. Treasury losses after more economic data suggested the U.S. economy is strong enough to potentially warrant more rate hikes in the fall. Equities ended down. Triple-A yields rose six to 12 basis points, depending on the scale, Thursday, while UST yields rose as much as 14 at 30 years on the headlines. Municipal bond mutual fund outflows returned with Refinitiv Lipper reporting investors pulled $989.852 million from funds for the week ending Wednesday.

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The Biden administration is expected to submit an emergency spending request for additional funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund before funds are expected to run dry at the end of the month. That's according to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said she's put pressure on the administration to act, as this summer has put pressure on many state and local governments to respond to extreme weather events.

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