As work continues on a 200-foot-long wall to keep a slipping hillside off train tracks, Orange County Transportation Authority planners are proposing spending millions of dollars more on wall construction and armoring with rocks along San Clemente’s coastline to protect the rail line.
The added armoring would include a half-mile-long retaining wall in the North Beach area and placing more boulders along other troubled areas of beach, work that comes with an estimated price tag of $200 million and could be done as early as this summer, according to OCTA staff.
The details were revealed at meetings this month, including Monday, March 11, when an overview by staff was presented to the OCTA Board of Directors.
Several people at the meetings wondered whether armoring the coastline is the right action or if sand is a better immediate solution to protect the rail line and help the community.
OCTA Program Manager Dan Phu gave a presentation at the meetings highlighting the transportation agency’s struggles in recent years along the rail line where it runs beachfront for a 7-mile stretch of South Orange coast, much of which sits 200 feet or less from the ocean.
Since 2021, there have been five closures of the rail line through San Clemente due to landslides and the ocean’s waves battering the tracks, costing OCTA and the state about $37 million in emergency repairs.
The latest happened at Mariposa Point in January, when a landslide destroyed a pedestrian bridge along the city’s popular beach path and debris dumped onto the tracks. Only limited passenger service through to San Diego has been offered in the last few days.
OCTA officials said they expect installation of the resulting 200-foot-long and 10- to 15-foot tall catchment wall to be completed by the end of the month. It is a $10 million project.
While the OCTA has two studies underway looking at how long-term the rail line can be protected against the effects of erosion and climate change – or…
Read the full article here
