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Federal officials get up-close look at coastal erosion threats to key rail line

April 14, 2023

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.

Officials speak about the OCTA Track Stabilization Project during a press conference in San Clemente, CA on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Officials spoke about the planned reopening of rail service between San Diego and San Clemente following a closure due to erosion. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Amit Bosein, Administrator of the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), speaks about the Track Stabilization Project during a press conference in San Clemente, CA on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Officials spoke about the planned reopening of rail service between San Diego and San Clemente following a closure due to erosion. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Work continues on the OCTA Track Stabilization Project south of in San Clemente, CA on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Officials spoke about the planned reopening of rail service between San Diego and San Clemente following a closure due to erosion. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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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 informative” and said a key takeaway is how all the stakeholders – from the state, the county, the transit agencies and the service operators – are taking the need to protect the corridor seriously.

“To see the effort, thought and planning already going into this is a big statement to me, to see the local solutions being sought here are very important,” Bose said. “When we see that on the federal level, that makes it a very positive signal to us that if there’s an ability to contribute from the federal government those dollars will go further.”

Bose and Levin both talked about tapping into the recent Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding that is still available for projects. The law earmarked $550 billion over the five years through 2026 for infrastructure needs.

“Having those billions of dollars in place, we know when those solutions do come up, there will be federal funding available,” Bose said.

OCTA leaders approved last month a set of studies on the impacts of erosion and sea-level rise and ways to protect the rail infrastructure in the future; they will be detailing both short- and long-term phases, including looking at the costly solution of moving the rail line away from the shore.

More studies and planning are needed before Bose said he could comment on the need to move the tracks inland, saying such a judgment is “premature.”

Mayor Chris Duncan said the meeting shows the collaborative effort needed to help the coastal town as it battles the effects of climate change. For the town, the damage to the tracks is just one of several examples of the coastal erosion being seen.

“San Clemente is a beach city,” he said. “It’s existential for us to keep our beaches not just for our way of life, but our local small businesses. It’s crucial for our economy that we have beaches and it’s great to see this group coming together today to talk about how we are going to do that.”

There is also new task force being created that will bring the scientific community together with lawmakers, Orange County Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley announced Thursday.

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The group will be chaired by Brett Sanders, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Irvine, to coordinate local, state and federal efforts to plan for long-term solutions. Levin and California District 38 Sen. Catherine Blakespear, who chairs a new Senate Transportation Subcommittee on LOSSAN Rail Corridor Resiliency, will participate.

“It is imperative that all governmental and academic experts are at the table as we begin the long and challenging work to find sustainable and practical solutions for ongoing challenges along our coast,” Foley said.

Sanders, who joined the train tour with the dignitaries, talked about the growing threat of coastal erosion to the region’s economy, recreation and infrastructure.

While he’s optimistic with longer-term solutions being discussed, Sanders said more steps need to be taken sooner rather than later while studies are conducted to protect the coastal resources. What is needed immediately, he said, is the importing of sand to act as a buffer between the ocean and the tracks, before more damage occurs.

“We could be more aggressive in our sand, we could try and fund sand locally,” he said, rather than wait years, even decades, for the traditional process to play out through the Army Corps of Engineers. “Especially in places we know we’ve had sand in the past, we could try to restore those more aggressively.

“That would certainly buy us time,” he said, “and also bring so much value to people who live here and enjoy going to the beach and bring more safety to the houses and infrastructure being impacted.”

Orange County Register

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Federal officials get up-close look at coastal erosion threats to key rail line

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