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On Friday, Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) program partners announced they will obtain $133 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to construct a flyover near 63rd and State streets on Chicago’s south side.

The funds are part of $1.2 billion awarded by the federal government to Illinois last week to develop high-speed rail in the state by 2014.

The flyover will carry Metra’s north-south Rock Island line over an east-west Norfolk Southern Railway/Amtrak line to eliminate traffic conflicts at a grade crossing, which is used by about 78 Metra and 60 freight and Amtrak trains daily.

Funded through a public-private partnership, CREATE calls for building roadway underpasses or overpasses to separate vehicle/pedestrian and rail traffic; constructing rail overpasses to separate freight- and passenger-rail tracks; and upgrading track, switches, signal systems and other rail infrastructure.

Program partners include Amtrak, the Association of American Railroads, Belt Railway Co. of Chicago, BNSF Railway Co., CSX Transportation, CN, Canadian Pacific, Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Co., Norfolk Southern Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, and the Illinois and Chicago departments of transportation.