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Last week, the California Transportation Commission approved a plan to provide $125 million for a grade separation project in Colton. The state will appropriate $91 million in addition to $34 million in federal funds that already have been earmarked for the project.

BNSF Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad — whose lines intersect at Colton Crossing — will cover the remainder of the $202 million project’s cost. About 100 trains per day pass through Colton Crossing, one of the nation’s busiest rail-to-rail crossings. Established in 1882, the crossing is used by BNSF, UP, Amtrak and Metrolink. For decades, one train has had to come to a stop to enable another train to pass.

To begin in September 2011, the project calls for raising one track above the other to create a grade separation.