Train service through South Orange County connecting to San Diego will resume on June 7, just as summer travel gets underway, following a month-long project to secure the rail line at the northern end of San Clemente.
The section of track has been closed since late April so work could be done to add and repair a wall of rock that lines the tracks, one of four sections the Orange County Transportation Authority has identified as needing urgent repair to avoid further disruption to service.
Metrolinks and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner plan to resume normal schedules with the reopening of the link in San Clemente.
The construction – led by the Orange County Transportation Authority in partnership with Metrolink – is finishing ahead of the anticipated six weeks initially announced.
Crews finished strategically placing large boulders, also known as riprap, throughout the project areas, officials said, totaling approximately 5,900 tons added.
The rock was sorted and placed primarily within the area where riprap previously existed to protect against coastal erosion, officials said.
OCTA officials have said an estimated 240,000 cubic yards of sand will also be placed on the beach between Mariposa Point and North Beach, though much is still unknown about that part of the plan, such a where it will come from, how long it will take and how much it will cost.
In coming days, crews will demobilize equipment, clear construction staging areas, test rail signals, and resurface and inspect the track. Work will happen from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., though some nighttime work may also occur prior to the June 7 reopening, according to the OCTA.
“Pedestrians and others traveling through the area near the rail line are asked to remember that trains will be running again soon and to be extra cautious around the tracks, crossing only at designated pedestrian and road crossings – always stay off the tracks,” officials said.
The project team is also finishing the placement of large temporary concrete barriers between the track and the inland bluff near where the Mariposa Bridge once was. A 1,400-foot-long catchment wall is to be built in the coming months.
The wall construction schedule is still being determined, but is anticipated to occur mostly behind those barriers to limit further disruption to passenger rail service, OCTA officials said. A beach path to replace the Mariposa Bridge will be created following the wall construction.
Over the past four years, San Clemente’s eroding bluffs — on both city and private property — have repeatedly forced the closure of the rail line.
While OCTA was given the green light to secure three spots along San Clemente’s coastline, a fourth project further south where a 2021 landslide halted service for months still needs to go through the California Coastal Commission permitting process. It would add 1,400 tons of riprap and a 1,200-foot-long “shoreline protection structure.”