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Officials at the Orange County Transportation Authority are pushing ahead with looking at possibly putting in more boulders along the coast to protect the Pacific Surfliner rail line despite concerns from San Clemente leaders that it’ll damage the city’s shrinking coastline.
The conversation comes after the bluff sitting above the rail line in San Clemente has collapsed multiple times in the last five years, blocking the tracks and causing months-long delays as crews worked to get it fixed.
[Read: Transportation Officials Discuss Future of OC’s Collapsing Coastal Railway]
It comes as an atmospheric river is slated to hit the region Thursday, which could impact the iconic rail line.
Heavy rains last January triggered a landslide that shut down the tracks for weeks.
In the past, the agency has typically used boulders and rocks, known as riprap, to armor the coast, which is a cheaper option for protecting the track.
But it also speeds up sand erosion faster on the beachfront – an issue San Clemente’s already grappling with.
[Read: Bolstering South Orange County’s Coastline]
Right now, agency staff are looking at both sand replenishment and installing additional riprap, along with other options like possible seawall funded by over $330 million in grants to help protect the railway.
But San Clemente leaders are urging the county to not pursue additional armoring along the coastline, and to instead build up barriers between the bluff and the railway, claiming that anything other than adding sand to the beach is hurting their own efforts to save beaches.
“The San Clemente region has reached critical mass in its lack of sand supply,” wrote Leslea Meyerhoff, the city’s coastal administrator, in a letter to the transportation authority last month.
Meyerhoff noted that the city could support looking at smaller pocket beaches or a limited seawall, but said that a walkable beach was still a necessity and that riprap would damage their ability to replenish their own beaches.
“The City is not in favor of adding additional shore parallel rock … unless it is being designed to serve as a foundation of a living shoreline concept,” Meyerhoff wrote. “The presence of rip rap or revetment creates a significant physical obstacle to beach nourishment and hinders lateral coast access.”
But at the transportation authority’s Monday morning meeting, James Beil, executive director of capital programs, raised concerns over how feasible it would be to get enough sand to protect the coast, saying they would need over 540,000 cubic yards.
“We’ve researched several inland sources,” Beall said, noting the project would likely require sand from multiple sources and that it would be difficult to install it along the railroad tracks.
Moving forward, agency staff are going to study building a retaining wall behind the tracks and other reinforcement along the beach, but warned they likely wouldn’t be able to break ground on many of those projects until at least 2028 to get the necessary permits in place.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
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