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On Monday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced the state will provide $64 million through the Illinois Jobs Now! program to help fund a grade separation in Bensenville that’s part of the Chicago Regional Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program.

The project calls for separating Irving Park Road from a Canadian Pacific line east of York Road. Work includes reconstructing an intersection by lowering Irving Park Road and raising a CP bridge. Located at the southwestern edge of O’Hare Airport, the current crossing is used daily by 37,000 vehicles and 25 freight trains, according to the state.

The project will be coordinated with construction of an adjacent grade separation involving a Union Pacific Railroad line and Irving Park Road. Construction is slated to start on the Bensenville grade separation in spring 2011 and conclude in fall 2013.

About 25 percent of the nation’s rail traffic travels through the Chicago region. The CREATE program aims to alleviate major bottlenecks along the region’s freight- and passenger-rail corridors. The public/private partnership program includes more than 46 rail and 25 grade separation projects.

CREATE 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, Metra, Norfolk Southern Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, and the Illinois and Chicago Departments of Transportation.