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State announces $125 million award to OCTA for coastal rail protection

October 24, 2024

The state announced $125 million in funding for the Orange County Transportation Authority to help protect a key rail line through San Clemente, a big boost toward an estimated $300 pricetag for projects identified to safeguard against the sea that batters the tracks along a vulnerable coastal stretch.

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Another $38 million is going toward San Diego efforts to protect the tracks, both funding awards announced by the California State Transportation Agency during a gathering held at San Clemente State Beach on Thursday, Oct. 24. The site overlooks an area where a reactivated ancient landslide and big waves did enough damage to shut down the rail line for months in 2021 and 2022.

Toks Omishakin, the state’s transportation secretary, said the funds are part of $1.3 billion throughout the state being announced for transportation improvements.

“It’s not very often that you get a chance to work on programs, policies and projects where you see the direct impact that it’s going to have on people in the communities that we’re serving,” said Omishakin.

The funds for the project will help stabilize and protect four sections of a 7-mile stretch of the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo, or LOSSAN, Corridor for the next 25 to 30 years, Omishakin noted.

“It is simply not an option to accept regular shutdowns of rail service in this section of the corridor as the status quo,” he said. “We can’t normalize the fact that this corridor routinely shuts down, and has to consistently fight every winter season or every rainy season to try to get it back open. We cannot normalize that. We have to get to a place where we protect these shores and protect this rail line.”

San Clemente City Councilmember Rick Loeffler said the funding for OCTA’s plans is a welcome surprise.

“You never really believe it until something comes to fruition,” he said. “This is surprising, we know that the state’s been in such a challenge for money and so the fact that they’re actually writing a check is just great news.”

Tam Nguyen, chair of the Orange County Transportation Authority’s board of directors, called it a “momentous, celebratory day.”

The 351-mile LOSSAN line is used by both passenger and freight trains. Pre-pandemic, there were 8.3 million annual boardings, Nguyen said, with 70 daily freight trains that moved an estimated $1 billion in goods along the corridor. There are 150 daily passenger trains along this corridor.

Landslides and damage from waves have already cost taxpayers $37 million since 2021 and caused five closures of the rail line, some lasting for months and preventing train travel between San Diego and northern points.

“Its importance cannot be overstated,” Nguyen said of the rail corridor. “Our goal moving forward is to work hard to find solutions, both short term and long term to ensure these trains keep moving.”

Protecting the 7-mile stretch, much of which is within 200 feet of the ocean, is essential and a key component to reducing gas emissions and providing sustainable transportation, Nguyen said.

A Coastal Rail Resiliency Study identified four hot spots in San Clemente that need to be immediately addressed, said Fifth District OC Supervisor Katrina Foley, also an OCTA board member.

“Today’s funding is so critical to helping us advance our most urgent projects and to help us protect the rail line for the immediate future, while we look to the long-term future,” Foley said.

The OCTA held earlier this year a series of public meetings on what projects its experts are looking at. Early plans called for about 500,000 cubic yards of sand replenishment and the placement of large boulders and catchment walls to protect the tracks from waves and an eroding shoreline on one side and landslides on the other.

A half-mile-long catchment wall is proposed near last year’s landslide at the Mariposa Bridg, as well as using more boulders on the beach side to keep waves from crashing on the tracks.

There would be an “engineered revetment” on the south end of town and more rocks added at San Clemente State Beach, and rocks and sand added at the north end of the beach town.

The cost for the projects has been estimated at about $300 million, according to OCTA officials.

In addition to the state’s $125 million check, about $50 million has already been committed from other sources, officials said, and the OCTA is awaiting word on requests for $133 million in federal funding.

OCTA CEO Darrell E. Johnson said a “holistic approach” will be looked at for keeping debris from falling on the tracks from the inland side and how to protect the line from the sea using both sand and rock.

“They have to work together. We’re in the early stages of specifics,” he said, noting that permits from regulatory agencies need to be obtained. “But more importantly, we want to do it in a way that makes sense for everyone … it’s going to take a little bit of time to get it right, but it’s important to get it right.”

A project timeline aims at earning project approval in January, with contract for designing and building secured by July 2026. Construction could be complete by the end of 2027.

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State announces $125 million award to OCTA for coastal rail protection

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