A $7.2 million “catchment wall” will be built at a landslide area in northern San Clemente to hold back the slipping hillside and get passenger train service running through to San Diego again.
The California Transportation Commission has committed the funding to the Orange County Transportation Authority, which owns the railroad tracks, to build the wall and repair the area of slope that collapsed in January – first onto the city’s Mariposa pedestrian bridge and then onto the tracks below, cutting off passenger service through San Clemente.
After the rain clears this week and the site dries, the dimensions of the wall and construction schedule will be finalized, Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said in an e-mail. The OCTA owns the tracks, and Metrolink manages the right-of-way.
The wall between the tracks and the hillside will be similar to one built below the city’s historic Casa Romantica last year after a landslide there threatened the railway and halted service for many months, Johnson noted.
The latest landslide also damaged the pedestrian bridge at Mariposa Point that is part of the city’s popular beach trail; it is unclear at this time what will happen with the bridge where it is adjacent to the tracks. A section has to be demolished because of the damage.
Discussions have taken place between the OCTA and San Clemente city officials about the bridge, “but the primary focus right now is the wall and protecting the right-of-way,” Johnson said.
The railway is part of the 351-mile Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor, or LOSSAN, and is used by both passenger and freight trains – sections run beachfront in San Clemente.
The California Transportation Commission previously kicked in $2 million in emergency funding for debris removal and other preconstruction services, Johnson said.
The latest costs put the total price tag due to landslides in the past two years for the OCTA and the state near $37 million, which…
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