Efforts to protect the troubled rail corridor between San Diego and Los Angeles by stabilizing the eroding beach and bluffs in San Clemente got a $100 million boost this week from a new round of federal grants.

The project is one of 12 in California receiving a total of $278 million from the Department of Transportations Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Grants Program, which supports work to improve the safety, efficiency and reliability of intercity passenger and freight rail service. Nationwide, the grants amounted to more than $2.4 billion.

The coastal corridor is San Diegos only railroad connection to Los Angeles and the rest of the United States. In addition to North County Transit Districts Coaster commuter train, the route is used by Amtrak, Metrolink, BNSF Freight and other carriers.

OCTA (the Orange County Transportation Authority) applied for the grant to help fund our Coastal Rail Infrastructure Resiliency Project, which will address the most immediate needs to protect the rail line in four hot spots through San Clemente, OCTA spokesperson Eric Carpenter said in an email Tuesday.

With this grant, as well as other state and local funds, including the $125 million from (the California State Transportation Agency) last week, OCTA has secured more than $310 million, which essentially fully funds this hot-spot protection effort, Carpenter said.

Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, who represents the coastal areas of North County and southern Orange County, helped obtain the federal funding and said protection of the rail corridor is a top priority for the region.

A draft coastal rail resilience study report released by OCTA earlier this year identifies the four hot spots to be worked on.

An additional seven spots within San Clementes seven miles of the rail corridor were identified for continued monitoring and possible reinforcement through methods yet to be decided. They include areas of Doheny State Beach, Poche Beach and North Beach.

Two of the hot spots recommended for immediate action are eroded beaches just north of the San Clemente Pier. Another is an unstable bluff near those beaches but east of the tracks, where the slope could slide onto the tracks. A fourth area is another eroded beach south of the pier and near San Clemente State Beach.

Comments on the draft report will be accepted through next summer, and the OCTA board is expected to approve the final report in the fall of 2025. Construction could begin in the spring of 2026, according to permit applications submitted to the California Coastal Commission.

Strategies outlined in the report are expected to protect the San Clemente segment of the railroad for the next 30 years. Meanwhile, transit officials will continue to evaluate how to protect the corridor into the more distant future.

Past efforts to protect the beach side of the tracks in San Clemente have centered on building rock revetments. However, hard barriers such as revetments have been shown to increase erosion and shrink the beach, and are widely opposed by environmentalists.

A better strategy, though more expensive, is sand replenishment with material dredged from nearby ocean deposits or other sources. A recommendation for revetments, sand replenishment or a combination of both will be included in the OCTAs final report.

San Clemente and Dana Point agreed this year to join San Diego County coastal cities in preliminary studies for what could be a massive regional sand replenishment project for all the agencies. That effort, led by the San Diego Association of Governments, is unrelated to the OCTA work to protect its segment of the railroad. Still, a regional sand project would help protect all coastal infrastructure, from roads and public parks to private homes and the railroad.

Bluff stabilization projects have used retaining walls, soil anchors, grading and other tactics. Those efforts also have their downside, such as the destruction of native plants and the loss of public spaces.

Among the long-term ideas being considered is to reroute the tracks away from the coastline between San Onofre State Beach and San Juan Capistrano, although little progress has been made in that direction.

Given the potential magnitude of this effort, it will require involvement of state and federal agencies, according to the OCTA website. Discussions are underway to determine which agency is best positioned to lead that effort.

An effort to reroute about 1.7 miles of track off the coastal bluffs and into a tunnel in Del Mar has been discussed for decades. The first real progress came after a $300 million state grant was awarded to start preliminary studies in 2022.

However, theres no money for construction that will cost at least several billion dollars, and the potential route is mired in controversy. SANDAG officials have said the earliest a tunnel could be completed is 2035.

The federal funding comes on the tail of $125 million in grant money allocated by the California State Transportation Agency a week earlier for the San Clemente rail needs identified by the OCTA.

Over the past three years, there has been a cumulative total of over 12 months of closures in this section of the corridor due to extensive railroad track movement and slope instability, state officials said in their announcement.

This investment will have a decades-long impact on the improvement of commerce and economic development through freight movement and national security as a part of the Strategic Rail Corridor Network,” said North County Transit District CEO Shawn Donaghy.

The San Clemente rail projects also have been allocated $80 million from the California Transportation Commissions Trade Corridor Enhancement Program.

NCTD owns and maintains more than 60 miles of the rail corridor from downtown San Diego to the Orange County border and operates Coaster commuter trains serving eight stations from Oceanside to the Santa Fe Depot in San Diego.

OCTA owns and maintains about 40 miles of the right-of-way. Both transit agencies are among several in six counties that use the 351-mile rail route known as the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo, or LOSSAN, corridor.