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The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) recently granted approvals for a bridge reconstruction project and two grade crossing improvement projects.

The $2.6 million bridge project calls for building a structure to carry County Highway 19 over Union Pacific Railroad tracks in Kankakee County. The structure will feature a new multi-steel stringer and reinforced concrete bridge, and provide 23 feet of minimum vertical clearance over the tracks. The state’s Grade Crossing Protection Fund (GCPF) will cover 60 percent of project costs.

The crossing projects call for installing automatic flashing light signals and gates, and improving highway approaches at a UP crossing near Momence, and installing new automatic flashing light signals and gates controlled by constant warning time circuitry at an Illinois Railway crossing near Holcomb. Both projects are slated for completion in September 2011.

The GCPF will cover 85 percent to 90 percent of the projects’ costs, with the railroads and municipalities providing the remainder.

Meanwhile, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has approved construction authorization from the Ohio Rail Development Commission directing the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co. to install flashing lights and roadway gates at a crossing in Suffield Township.

The railroad must submit site plans and cost estimates to PUCO by Dec. 28. Funding for the project — which must be completed by Sept. 29, 2011 — will be covered by federal dollars.