Orange County leaders are getting ready to invest $200 million in shoring up a seven-mile stretch of coastal railway as they study what the future looks like for a rail line that’s older than the county.
The Pacific Surfliner train, first opened in 1888, has been a near constant headache for local leaders in recent years.
There’s been five closures since September 2021 due to a series of rockslides, flooding and slope failures – something many local officials have attributed to climate change.
[Read: Is Orange County’s Coastal Train Entering its Final Days?]
Before that, the rail line had just three closures over 130 years according to a presentation from the OC Transportation Authority.
While the train line stretches from San Luis Obispo to San Diego, the breakdowns in Orange County have all occurred on a seven-mile stretch of coastline from San Clemente to the northern edge of San Diego County, most of which is less than 200 feet away from the ocean.
That stretch of the track is owned by the Orange County Transportation Authority, governed by a board made up of local city council members and county supervisors that’s starting to get a lot more public attention amidst questions over the future of the rail line.
[Read: Orange County’s Transit Leaders Delay on Video Live Streaming]
But this past Monday, agency leaders had a frank discussion over the future of the rail line and just how much it was going to cost taxpayers.
“There’s not going to be one solution that will fix everything,” said Dan Phu, a program manager at the transportation authority. “We’re combating challenges on both the seaward side and the inland side, it makes it an extremely challenging situation.”
Damage to the tracks has already forced the transportation authority to invest over $37 million in fixing up the tracks – pulling on their own funds, along with state and federal grants, according to a presentation by transportation authority staff on Monday.
Juggling Landslides & Beach Erosion
Phu highlighted four locations that need immediate reinforcement, suggesting options such as a barrier wall to block any landslides from throwing debris onto the track or adding more rocks along the coast to take the brunt of any erosion from the ocean.
Those reinforcements are set to cost around $200 million, with staff noting they wanted to start construction within the next five months.
Eric Carpenter, a spokesperson for the transportation authority, said the agency is still looking for the funding to cover those changes.
“OCTA does not currently have funding for this effort to help keep the rail line open but would continue to work with state and federal partners to explore all funding options,” Carpenter said in a statement.
But those suggestions faced some pushback from several board members, with OC Supervisor Katrina Foley pointing out studies that show coastal armoring with boulders can accelerate beach erosion.
“It’s like a circle we’re in here. We keep armoring and then the beaches erode, and the erosion further erodes next to the area we’ve armored and then the beaches are gone,” Foley said. “I’ve been raising this since 2021 and I’m going to keep raising it until we do something.”
Foley also pitched the idea of creating a “regional stockpile hub,” of sediment that could be used to replenish multiple spots along the coast, or pulling sand from the Prado Dam.
Phu said their goal was to secure the railroad first then look at sand replenishment later.
Dana Point Mayor Jamey Federico also highlighted how these plans are aimed at getting the rail line through the next winter without another collapse.
“The details in here are the shortest of the short term plans, these are not the longer term solutions,” Federico said. “The reality is sand erosion or sand starvation is caused by a lot of things. We’re trying to protect the train tracks and we’re part of a much bigger regional issue.”
While the board didn’t take any votes on the issue Monday, Phu also noted other votes would come back to the board later for what decisions they’d make to stabilize the coastline.
The transportation authority will also monitor another seven locations along the coast to ensure those areas didn’t start to give way as well.
There are also plans to gather feedback from San Clemente and other county residents along the coast in the near future, with a Zoom meeting on April 11 and an in-person meeting on May 21 in San Clemente.
The final study isn’t scheduled to be released until fall of next year.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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