Crews started clearing brush and preparing a hillside in northern San Clemente this week to build a 1,400-foot-long wall that hopes to keep landslide debris from shutting down a key coastal rail line.
The work by the Orange County Transportation Authority, in coordination with Metrolink, is being done as an emergency action to “protect the community and rail passengers, as well as ensure the safety and reliability of overall rail operations,” agency officials said.
The wall will be on the bluffside of the tracks at Mariposa Point, where a popular pedestrian bridge collapsed during a landslide following heavy storms in late 2023. It will be similar to one put in place below the Casa Romantica Cultural Center, where a landslide earlier that same year also threatened tracks.
Commuter and freight service has been halted multiple times by landslide and erosion damage since 2021, sometimes for weeks at a time.
The containment wall will extend from the El Portal Beach access point to Linda Lane. Work started Monday, Sept. 15, with crews removing vegetation and the remaining foundational columns from the damaged pedestrian bridge.
OCTA officials warned the surrounding community that the work will involve the use of excavators, breakers and jackhammers that may result in noise and vibrations.
Work clearing brush and digging out the bridge supports will continue through October, while the entire project is expected to be complete before summer 2026.
Passenger rail service is not expected to be halted during construction.
The city’s pedestrian beach trail will be closed from the North Beach parking lot to El Portal during work hours, but will reopen at the end of each workday and will be open on Sundays, officials said.
Work is planned from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. No nighttime work is anticipated.
The Mariposa underpass will also be closed. All other beach access points will remain open during construction.
To ensure the safety of pedestrians, flaggers will be stationed at these access points to assist with pedestrian crossing, officials said.
The OCTA also announced the completion of its initial beach nourishment project at North Beach in San Clemente, another attempt to protect the rail line along vulnerable areas of the coastline.
The work happened over a 10-day period, with crews adding 2,500 cubic yards of sand along more than a quarter-mile of shoreline to help buffer the tracks from waves and improve resilience against erosion.
The change from original projections of approximately 3,200 cubic yards reflects the strict permit requirements limiting nourishment to areas above the mean high tide line, as well as dynamic beach and environmental conditions, officials said.
“Completing this first placement of sand is an important milestone we should celebrate as we continue to work on protecting priority areas,” said OCTA Chair Doug Chaffee, also the county’s Fourth District supervisor. “We are committed to protecting this vital rail link for passengers and freight through strategic placements of sand and other protective measures.”
The OCTA has promised the future addition of an estimated 250,000 cubic yards of sand in the same area, though it’s still unclear where the sand will come from, how much it will cost or how long it will take to be placed on the shoreline.
The effort is part of a $300 million plan to protect the rail line along several vulnerable areas of the coast in south Orange County following several closures due to damage along the tracks.