A wall stretching about a quarter mile to hold back a slipping hillside in San Clemente and prevent future rail track damage has approval from the California Coastal Commission, also greenlighting fixes to reconnect a popular beach path destroyed by a 2024 landslide.
The projects are part of the Orange County Transportation Authority’s $300 million attempt to safeguard the vulnerable rail line, which has been shut down several times in recent years from landslides where it runs beachfront through south OC. The Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo, or LOSSAN, Corridor serves both passenger and freight rail service.
In early 2024, a landslide that spilled debris on the track and shuttered service for several weeks also damaged the Mariposa Pedestrian Bridge, which connected the city’s beach path in the area.
Work was already done to remove the remaining parts of the bridge, and rock boulders are being installed in the North Beach area along the tracks, as part of emergency work previously approved a few weeks ago. Sand is also in the plan to act as a buffer between the ocean and the tracks.
Currently on the inland side of the tracks is a 156-foot-long, 9-foot-tall temporary wall put in following the landslide during the wet 2024 winter. But several more hillslides have been detected in the following months.
The newly approved wall flanking the Mariposa Beach Access Point will be in two sections, one 1,180-foot-long wall averaging 20.9 feet in height and another 180-foot-long section averaging 16.8 feet in height, according to a report from OCTA staffers.
The new pedestrian trail will not be a wooden and steel bridge, as it was before, but a grade-level pathway similar to the rest of the trail on the seaward side of the wall.
OCTA officials last year identified four “hot spot areas” along the LOSSAN rail corridor as most vulnerable to catastrophic failure from beach erosion, wave impacts, and slope failure. These projects are part of the $300 million being spent to addresss the concerning areas.
The trouble for the LOSSAN rail corridor started in 2021, first on the south end of town when a landslide slid onto tracks and during a big swell and high tide event, the ocean’s waves battered the tracks causing movement.
A landslide in north San Clemente and then one at the city-owned Casa Romantica followed, with another at the Mariposa Bridge area last year.
The recommendation from the Coastal Commission staff to approve the wall project shares and reflects “our shared goal of preserving public access to the coast, protecting sensitive resources and ensuring the long-term resiliency over the coastline and a critical link in the Southern California rail system,” OCTA CEO Darrell Johnson said.
“The unstable bluffs in this area pose real risk, not just to infrastructure, but the public safety and mobility across Southern California,” he said. “The proposed catchment wall and the restoration of the pedestrian trail represent a carefully considered solution that balances the urgent protection with environmental responsibility.”
OCTA officials said the agency looks forward to working with the city to make sure the pedestrian trail – one of the most frequently-used in the region for coastal access – can reopen.
San Clemente City Manager Andy Hall called the OCTA’s efforts to meet with the community and collaborate with the city an “effective-yet-balanced approach” that addresses the concerns, with the minimum amount of environmental impact.
Save Our Beaches founder Suzie Whitelaw said the advocacy group supported the interior wall project, wanting the footprint for any projects addressing the ocean side of the track to be as minimal as possible.
“This is a balanced project. It represents the best of both worlds,” she said of the catchment wall and pedestrian path project. “You’re protecting the tracks and increasing coastal access and maintaining coastal access.”
The wall is expected to take eight months to build, but it’s unknown when the work will start, according to OCTA.
Passenger rail service is expected to remain suspended until early June for work that has already started on other parts of the projects. During the closure, passengers are asked to check metrolinktrains.com/service-updates and pacificsurfliner.com/alerts for the latest service updates.