A $4 million request for federal funding has been made to help the Orange County Transportation Authority with a study on relocating coastal sections of a key rail line further inland, U.S. Representative Mike Levin announced Thursday, May 13, during a tour of ocean threats to the stretch of tracks.
He was in San Clemente with U.S. Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose and other transportation officials to highlight the challenges facing the Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor, or LOSSAN Corridor, because of coastal erosion and rising sea levels.
Daily commuter rail service between south Orange County and San Diego has been halted for half a year because of track damage – it is set to resume Monday. The various officials gathered on a bluff at San Clemente State Beach Thursday afternoon to talk about the coastal section of the rail line, where $13 million in emergency repairs have been underway since a September hurricane swell paired with a landslide to shift the tracks.
Earlier in the morning they were in San Diego, along the Del Mar bluffs, where another section of the line passes just a few feet from the edge overlooking the ocean.
“It’s just a matter of time before the tracks will be over the cliff’s edge,” Levin said. “That’s where our train ride had to stop, the rail tracks have been closed.”
In San Clemente, big rock boulders have been dumped by the truckload along the ocean side of the tracks to keep waves from inflicting further damage and the last of some 200 ground anchors have been drilled into the hillside’s bedrock on the other side of the 700 feet of track.
“We know climate change is making these problems worse,” Levin said. “Rising sea levels, stronger storm surges will continue to pummel our coastline and recently we’ve experienced devastating landslides right here in the city of San Clemente that caused grave damage.” .
Bose called the tour “very revealing and…
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