The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) has authorized $376 million for grade crossing safety enhancement and highway-rail grade separations statewide through its five-year Crossing Safety Improvement Program (CSIP). The plan will extend from Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 to 2031.
Public crossings are among the most dangerous areas in Illinois, with 119 collisions in 2025 alone, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). This represents a 43% increase from the previous year’s 84 collisions. To address these issues, the state will allocate funds across two programs to improve 21 highway bridges, six pedestrian projects, upgrade 336 warning devices and enhance 24 crossings.
The state will distribute $176 million for crossing improvement projects in FY 2027 alone, addressing 229 sites in total. The ICC has also set aside $10 million as a contingency to address projects that need rapid solutions, experimental crossing safety projects, low-cost safety improvements at crossings and incentive payments to local agencies to close select highway-rail grade crossings.
A selection of the largest grade separation projects receiving funding include:
- Elmwood Park – $111.9 million.
- South Elgin – $59.2 million.
- Savoy – $45.6 million.
- New Lenox – $45 million.
- Des Plaines – $35 million.
- Joliet will – $31.5 million.
The Grade Crossing Protection Fund (GCPF) – which covers the lion’s share of the award allocations – only applies to projects that meet certain criteria. Designed to assist local jurisdictions and railroads in securing essential funding, qualifying initiatives must prioritize improving safety measures at highway-rail crossings on local roads and streets.
The following types of projects are eligible for GCPF assistance:
- Installing automatic flashing light signals and gates at public grade crossings that are either not equipped with these devices, equipped only with automatic flashing light signals or require signal circuitry improvements at sites only equipped with automatic warning devices.
- Building or reconstructing grade separations for overpasses or subways.
- Improving vertical clearance for grade separations that involve lowering the highway pavement surface under a railroad bridge.
- Building bridges to carry pedestrian and bicycle traffic either over or under railroad tracks.
- Upgrading circuitry, warning devices or traffic signals at grade crossings to synchronize warning signals between adjacent traffic signals.
- Improving highway approaches adjacent to crossing surfaces.
- Building roadways between closed crossings and an adjacent open, improved crossing.
- Installing remote monitoring devices in grade crossing warning devices to alert the railroad of failures in the system.
- Offering incentive payments to local agencies to close public highway-rail grade crossings.
- Improving crossing surfaces.
- Installing four-quadrant gates as part of vehicle detection system maintenance.
- Mitigating trespassing.
Photo by Tom Fisk from Pexels
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