SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink rail service through San Clemente could resume next week, based on progress in construction of a wall to protect both rail services from a landslide.
The San Clemente Times reports that the wall beneath the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens is nearing completion, according to an update to the Orange County Transportation Authority board at its meeting on Monday, July 10.
“Metrolink has not yet indicated a date for passenger service resumption,” Jim Bell, OCTA’s executive director of capital programs, told the board, “but based on the progress, I believe it may be possible sometime next week.”
The initial slide at the Casa Romantica site occurred April 27; after service resumed, it was halted again on June 5 when additional debris fell onto the Surf Line tracks.
Ongoing issues with slides at two locations in San Clemente has prevented regular passenger operations for all but 41 days since Sept. 30, 2022, leading to a major drop in Surfliner ridership [see “Work begins on wall …,” Trains News Wire, June 28, 2023].
I sincerely hope the historic Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens is secured on bedrock. However, a retention wall is needed in any case to save what remains of the surrounding land while also protecting the railway line below.
The recent landslide isn’t an isolated incident.
It’s the third time train service between San Diego and Orange County has been disrupted since last fall.
It’s also the second time a landslide occurred at San Clemente’s Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens over the last few months.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Public announcement by the San Diego U-T on Tuesday afternoon that rail service to/from San Diego County resumes Monday July 17, hopefully Surfliners will revert back to the full train schedule and services versus the current reduced timetable.
Netting may stop debris but it has no chance against a land slide. A properly reinforced wall with like corbels (less fancy flying buttresses as found on Cathedral outer walls) with solid footings that would go 30′-50′ down to bedrock could get the job done. If the landslide gets tall enough it will eventually over run the wall but in this case, if that happens, they will have bigger problems to deal with, like all those buildings crumbling and toppling down. Maybe they ought to do a “Fraser Canyon” (B.C.) slide shed where they cover the track and let the dirt do what it wants to do, flow to its natural slope. That would end up in a short tunnel. Either way, problem solved…
It looks like sand to me. No net is going to hold sand. You can’t anchor in it and if it is like where I live, the sand goes down 30 feet before you hit bedrock.
You cut back to move the slope back, but whether you can do this in the middle of a city without undermining surrounding buildings is a good question.
Need a few European Engineers from Austria, Switzerland to fix this issue. Just a netting issue, but America love to build walls.
Terry what’s with always having to throw in a snide comment directed at the Americans.
We have our problems too.