This is where a SoCal railway is about to fall into the sea. What is being done to save it
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A major sand replenishment is headed to the San Clemente beach along the long-imperiled railway line, part of a large shoreline work package aimed at fortifying the vulnerable railroad while also protecting the area’s shrinking beaches.
The California Coastal Commission on Thursday approved an extensive permit that railway officials hope will help maintain the critical rail line, which has faced an onslaught of rising seas, harsh waves and strong storms over the last several years that have led to repeated closures — an issue only intensified this year by the historic El Niño.
A key element of the permit is the placement of almost 700,000 cubic yards of sand on sections of the area’s shrinking — or completely gone — beaches, an investment Orange County officials say will be the single largest sand replenishment along this stretch of coast in more than 60 years.
“This is the first step to resolving a half century of inaction by our community,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, who sits on the Orange County Transportation Authority’s board of directors, said at Thursday’s Coastal Commission hearing. She admitted that the county has, for too long, focused on efforts around the railway that “harden” the beach — such as seawalls and large rock piles — which can actually exacerbate erosion and sand loss in the long term.
“Sand on the beaches is the solution,” Foley said, urging the commission to approve the permit to ensure the sand replenishment project could move forward. “Wide sandy beaches serve as a necessary buffer to protect the rail line.”
With $300 million in state and federal funding already secured to help protect the 4 miles of coast where the railroad has been most threatened, Foley said the major sand replenishment — which will use about a third of those funds — could occur as soon as January.
Few cities in California last week felt the full brunt of the climate crisis more than the small coastal town of San Clemente.
The 10-year coastal development permit balances emergency work and plans by the Orange County Transportation Authority to fortify the rail line, including construction of a 1,200-foot seawall along the rail line, with mitigation efforts to protect the coast and allow public access to nearby beaches. The permit outlines how the Orange County Transportation Authority would need to maintain and, when possible, remove large rock piles, known as riprap, as well as “tiebacks” placed along the bluffs inland of the railway, both of which were built and expanded under emergency permits when recent storms undermined the railway.
The permit will also require the railway owners and operators to monitor and report on how the sand replenishment holds up within five years, study the long-term future of the rail line, and perhaps most significantly, examine how and where the imperiled railway could be relocated.
The rail line, operating since 1888, has always been vulnerable to the ocean’s wrath due to its location — but its beachfront property is also one of its main draws for riders seeking a scenic trip down Southern California’s iconic coast. But recent years have proved particularly precarious.
Just last month, travel on the railway was partially shuttered because of high tides, which came just weeks after a temporary closure in September due to erosion and slope damage following a strong Pacific storm. During the summer, heavy waves and erosion closed the rail line for several days.
OCTA officials said the railway has been cumulatively closed for a total of 12 months since 2021 due to erosion and bluff failures, and the Coastal Commission said it processed 15 track stabilization projects during that same period, including 10 emergency coastal development permits.
With California’s coast getting pounded by strong waves amid a strengthening El Niño, residents and city leaders are turning to big rocks and seawalls to protect homes and keep railroads from falling into the sea.
While Coastal Commission staff and OCTA officials called the new permit a collaboration that required compromise on both sides, dozens of local environmental advocates, surfers, tribal leaders and beachgoers expressed concerns Thursday that the agreement didn’t go far enough to protect the coastline.
“OCTA failed to plan for foreseeable hazards, repeatedly violated its permits, and dumped rock that has consumed San Clemente’s beaches without reliably protecting the railroad,” a group wrote in a letter to the commission, signed by the Surfrider Foundation, Orange County Coastkeeper, Save Our Beaches San Clemente and California Coastal Protection Network. They, and others who spoke at Thursday’s meeting, asked that the commission require OCTA to maintain a 50-foot sandy beach seaward of the railway after the sand replenishment.
While many commissioners supported the idea, commission staff said the benchmark was too stringent to employ without understanding how the new sand placement will fare over the next few months or years.
“We need a little bit of time to assess what exactly that requirement would look like,” said Kate Huckelbridge, executive director of the Coastal Commission. Still, she said that wasn’t a reason not to act, urging commissioners to approve the permit so some of the important work could get started and new mandates would kick in, including requirements that railway officials better plan for the future.
“The situation here is dire,” Huckelbridge said. “It highlights all the challenges we as a commission are facing. In this moment with El Niño, it’s more stark than ever.”
Staff writers Summer Lin and Rong-Gong Lin contributed to this report.
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