Shoreline Erosion | Coastal Armoring + Engineering
April 7, 2024
The Race to Keep an Amtrak Train From Falling Into the Pacific – The Wall Street Journal
Excerpt:
A stretch of Highway 1 in Big Sur is closed indefinitely after the southbound lane eroded during last weekend’s rainstorm, bringing uncertainty to the communities that rely on the road for transportation.
The Pacific Surfliner train runs along some of the most spectacular coastline in America, traversing Southern California bluffs and beaches while ocean waves crash on the golden sand nearby.
Soon, some fear it might fall into the ocean.
Rising sea levels and powerful storms are eating away at the ground holding up the tracks on the second most popular Amtrak rail corridor in the U.S. The route runs 351 miles from San Diego through Los Angeles to California’s Central Coast and is also used by freight and commuter trains.
The erosion has caused landslides that shut down the Surfliner at least a dozen times in the past six years.
During the shutdowns, engineers have installed boulders, steel pilings and concrete walls that allow the Surfliner to operate again—but only temporarily. Despite the $140 million they have spent on repairs, officials say a more costly, permanent fix is needed because climate change is going to keep pushing up sea levels and making storms more intense.
“Ultimately, these things fail,” said Patrick Barnard, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “The water rises and the shoreline wants to move inland.”
Around the U.S., civil engineers are fighting to save hundreds of billions of dollars of coastal infrastructure. Few places are more threatened than California, where transportation routes, homes and businesses built along the Pacific Ocean have long been part of the Golden State’s identity.
In the Central California resort town of Big Sur, officials urged residents to evacuate Wednesday as a storm threatened damage to coastal Highway 1, part of which already collapsed recently. That route has been affected by landslides about 50 times since 2009, and the frequency is growing.
Last year, the California Transportation Department moved a nearly one-mile stretch of Highway 1 in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, inland and away from bluffs that threatened to crumble beneath it.
To get the Pacific Surfliner on safer ground for the long run, nearly everyone agrees it needs to relocate away from the ocean. Officials are considering moving several particularly vulnerable miles inland through the upscale San Diego suburb of Del Mar and the South Orange County city of San Clemente. The total cost would be billions of dollars.
Those plans have drawn opposition, particularly in Del Mar, where proposed tunnels under homes have caused residents to worry about everything from noise to vibration to a hazardous spill from a freight train.
“We don’t want to trade off one unsafe situation for another,” said Dave Carey, a Del Mar homeowner and member of a citizens group called Coalition for Safer Trains.
Amid the local opposition and questions about how government agencies would split costs, officials expect the track relocation process to take years or even decades. Meanwhile, the risks to the Pacific Surfliner only grow.
“There is no easy answer,” said Chad Edison, chief deputy secretary for rail and transit of the California State Transportation Agency. “In all cases, we have to buy time…”
More on Shoreline Erosion | Coastal Armoring + Engineering . . .
Why Highway 1 Near Big Sur Is Always Collapsing Into The Ocean – LAist
About 2,000 motorists, mostly tourists, were stuck in the area on Saturday night after a section of Highway 1 fell into the ocean. No injuries were reported….
Travelers Stranded by Highway Collapse Begin to Leave Big Sur – the New York Times
About 2,000 motorists, mostly tourists, were stuck in the area on Saturday night after a section of Highway 1 fell into the ocean. No injuries were reported….
California’s Highway 1 road conditions will only get riskier, experts say – the Guardian
Chunk of famed route crumbled into sea causing another closure, and conditions are expected to only worsen with climate crisis…
California’s Pacific highway is beautiful, famous … and collapsing – the Times, UK
2,000 people were stranded recently when a chunk of Highway 1 fell into the sea near Big Sur. The solution may lurk in an unlikely place: Yorkshire…
Landslides are changing Calif.’s coastline. 100 years ago, one swallowed a city – SF Gate
Coastal landslides and shifting ground have made headlines recently around Los Angeles, particularly on the otherwise quiet Palos Verdes Peninsula at the southern tip of the county. The looming landmass juts out into the Pacific Ocean near Long Beach and is topped with rolling hillsides, dramatic ocean views and multimillion-dollar homes…
Clifftop mansions stand on the brink after severe storms inundate California – the Washington Post
Across Southern California, slope failures and ground movement after a series of storms have put homes in harm’s way…
9 times the US Army Corps of Engineers miscalculated badly at the expense of taxpayers, wildlife – Jefferson Public Radio (JPR)
The agency has a history of diving into big construction projects that exceed projected costs, fall short on projected benefits and, in some cases, create new problems that engineers hadn’t bargained for…
Can Seawalls Save Us? – the New Yorker
Pacifica, California, just south of San Francisco, is the kind of beachfront community that longtime residents compare to Heaven…Pacifica embodies one of the central disagreements about rising seas. Fight or flight? Stay or go? Flight can seem unimaginable. But, if we try to fight the ocean with rock and concrete, it will cost us—and it may not work…
Erosion Stripping Seven Mile Beach – cayman compass
The Compass recently observed the length of the beach using a drone camera to get the most up-to-date images of the impacts of the storm and ongoing erosion. It showed that some areas along the southern stretch have suffered a total loss of beach, and in at least one section, a near-5-feet-high ledge of sand has been created by the bombardment of the waves…