The California Transportation Commission awarded an additional $7.2 million in emergency funds Friday to stop landslides in San Clemente from closing the only railroad link to San Diego.
The money brings to over $9 million the funds available to clean up the latest landslide and build a catchment wall to prevent further damage and make the line safe for Amtrak and Metrolink passenger trains.
BNSF freight trains continue to run intermittently overnight at reduced speed with crews monitoring the cliff slope for movement.
With the latest emergency grant, Metrolink on Friday signed a design-build contract with Condon-Johnson & Associates, a construction firm that has worked on previous emergency rail protection efforts in the San Clemente area.
The rail line was closed through San Clemente on Jan. 24 when a landslide on private property above the city-owned Mariposa Trail Pedestrian Bridge caused major damage to the bridge and scattered debris onto the track.
Over the past three years, San Clemente’s eroding bluffs — on both city and private property — have repeatedly forced the closure of the rail line which had operated largely uninterrupted for more than 125 years.