Latest news with #OrangeCountyTransportationAuthority
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Coastal rail closed due to landslide risk to resume service between San Diego and Orange counties
The coastal rail linking Orange and San Diego counties is expected to resume service next month after crews spent nearly six weeks reinforcing tracks that were subject to landslides and coastal erosion. Service on the oceanside rail — which extends from Dana Point in south Orange County to the southernmost stops in San Diego County, including San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Oceanside — is set to resume June 7, according to an Orange County Transportation Authority update. The rail line, which serves Metrolink's commuter trains and Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner, was closed in April to begin construction. The California Coastal Commission approved emergency construction last month after several sections of the rail, which lie below bluffs, were deemed unstable and at immediate risk of landslide and coastal erosion. Crews placed 5,900 tons of large boulders, known as riprap, along the rail, which are intended to absorb flowing water and stabilize potential runoff that may obstruct the rail. Up to 240,000 cubic yards of sand will also be placed between two crucial points along the rail between Mariposa and North beaches. The OCTA said crews are preparing to construct a 1,400-foot-long catchment beside the rail, but noted that the construction schedule is still being determined. Read more: Angels Flight announces price hike as iconic L.A. railway becomes latest victim of inflation The OCTA estimated the total cost of the projects to be about $300 million. In the update, the OCTA acknowledged the recurring interruptions to its passenger rail service: 'Over the past four years, San Clemente's eroding bluffs — on both city and private property — have repeatedly forced the closure of the rail line that has operated largely uninterrupted for more than 125 years.' Work will continue daily between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. before the rail's opening. Service on the Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink are still scheduled to resume normally starting June 7. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Coastal rail closed due to landslide risk to resume service between San Diego and Orange counties
The coastal rail linking Orange and San Diego counties is expected to resume service next month after crews spent nearly six weeks reinforcing tracks that were subject to landslides and coastal erosion. Service on the oceanside rail — which extends from Dana Point in south Orange County to the southernmost stops in San Diego County, including San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Oceanside — is set to resume June 7, according to an Orange County Transportation Authority update. The rail line, which serves Metrolink's commuter trains and Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner, was closed in April to begin construction. The California Coastal Commission approved emergency construction last month after several sections of the rail, which lie below bluffs, were deemed unstable and at immediate risk of landslide and coastal erosion. Crews placed 5,900 tons of large boulders, known as riprap, along the rail, which are intended to absorb flowing water and stabilize potential runoff that may obstruct the rail. Up to 240,000 cubic yards of sand will also be placed between two crucial points along the rail between Mariposa and North beaches. The OCTA said crews are preparing to construct a 1,400-foot-long catchment beside the rail, but noted that the construction schedule is still being determined. The OCTA estimated the total cost of the projects to be about $300 million. In the update, the OCTA acknowledged the recurring interruptions to its passenger rail service: 'Over the past four years, San Clemente's eroding bluffs — on both city and private property — have repeatedly forced the closure of the rail line that has operated largely uninterrupted for more than 125 years.' Work will continue daily between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. before the rail's opening. Service on the Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink are still scheduled to resume normally starting June 7.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Orange County unveils streetcar for area's ‘first modern' system
Orange County officials have unveiled the first of eight vehicles that will soon operate on the OC Streetcar system. The debut of the blue and orange colored vehicle, which will be the county's 'first modern, electric streetcar,' was held at its base in Santa Ana on Wednesday, the Orange County Transportation Authority stated. 'The arrival of the first OC Streetcar vehicle is an exciting moment for Orange County and a clear sign of the strong progress we're making toward getting the system running,' said OCTA Chair Doug Chaffee. The Siemens S700 streetcar is 90 feet long and designed to carry up to 211 passengers, including 62 seated and 149 standing. 'The OC Streetcar will run on electricity from an overhead catenary system, producing zero emissions as it runs along the track,' according to the OCTA. The cars will run a 4-mile route between the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center and Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove, serving some of the most densely populated neighborhoods and connecting with Metrolink rail service. Testing on the new system is expected to begin this summer, with service slated to begin in spring 2026. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Plans for a traffic bridge at Costa Mesa's Gisler Avenue may be nixed after 60+ years
The western terminus of Costa Mesa's Gisler Avenue has for years remained untouched — an asphalt road segueing to a pedestrian bridge that spans the concrete channel of the Santa Ana River — and city leaders want it to stay that way. But, since the first highway master plans for Orange County were inked in the 1950s, the site has been identified as a place where a potential roadway bridge could link Gisler to Garfield Avenue in Huntington Beach. That juncture is one of four Santa Ana River crossings identified in the document — two more at Adams Street and Victoria Avenue have since been constructed, while a third connecting Huntington's Banning Avenue and Costa Mesa's 19th Street is also being contested but is currently on hold. The plan for the bridge system likely made sense when Orange County's population was booming and homes had not yet filled in the parcels along Gisler Avenue. But today, Costa Mesa's 'state streets' neighborhood and California Elementary School to the north and Mesa Verde Country Club to the south make building out the two-lane road a dicey proposition. 'In order to put a bridge up, hypothetically, you'd have to do a lot of eminent domain, including a school site, the Mesa Verde golf course and about 20 to 30 homes,' Mayor John Stephens said Thursday. 'Obviously, nobody in Costa Mesa wants that. It would be brutal for the residents of Mesa Verde.' For that reason, city leaders have fought since 1991 to have the Garfield-Gisler bridge removed from the Master Plan of Arterial Highways (MPAH), now under the jurisdiction of the Orange County Transportation Authority. Joined in their effort by Huntington Beach, and later Fountain Valley, officials and residents alike have pushed the agency to conduct traffic studies and consider alternative infrastructure improvements that would negate the need for the bridges. With the penning of a memorandum of understanding in 2006, the involved parties agreed to implement a series of improvements, including intersection upgrades, street widening and new freeway on-ramps. And, in the meantime, a few seismic changes to the surrounding area have worked out in the cities' favor. Orange County population forecasts have trended downward, from 3.6 million to 3.3 million, in the last two decades, while completion of OCTA's $2.16-billion I-405 Improvement Project in 2023 increased the freeway's capacity, lessening the need for arterial connectors. Those changes led the transportation agency to determine that the Garfield-Gisler bridge was no longer necessary. 'Based on the fact that forecast congestion has not increased in the study area reviewed in this analysis, there is no indication of a need for further in‐depth study of the MPAH status of the Garfield-Gisler [right of way] reserve,' a 2025 technical study concluded. 'It is recommended that the facility be fully removed from the MPAH without significant impacts on traffic or congestion in the area.' Stephens and Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, two longstanding opponents of the bridge proposal, serve on OCTA's Board of Directors as well as a Regional Transportation and Planning Committee that reviews highway programs and makes recommendations to the agency's board of directors. On Monday, the committee formally recommended the project be stricken from the master plan. The move was highlighted in letters of support signed by the public works directors of the cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley. Fountain Valley, which had in previous decades historically supported the Santa Ana River traffic crossings, after Monday's vote decided to withdraw its letter of support so the matter could be reviewed by its city council, according to Stephens. Once a determination is made at that level, it will be up to the OCTA Board of Directors to decide whether to formally adopt the master plan amendment that would leave the Gisler Avenue terminus as it stands today. Foley said Thursday she was hopeful for a positive outcome. 'We can't exactly have a highway running through our nice residential communities — you'd be taking out schools, homes and beautiful open spaces, the golf course, etc.,' she said. 'We've been working on this for many decades here in Costa Mesa, and it's finally time to take this bad idea off the Master Plan of Arterial Highways.'
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Newport Beach unveils California's first trash-collecting water wheel
A new multi-million dollar trash-collecting water wheel was unveiled in Newport Beach Friday, the first-of-its-kind in the state, to collect floating trash before it contaminates the local harbors and beaches. City leaders said every year, hundreds of tons of floating trash and debris enter Newport Bay through San Diego Creek. The garbage eventually makes its way to the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve, Newport Harbor and beaches. The $5.5 million Newport Bay Trash Interceptor will supplement other cleaning efforts including trash booms, catch basin collection systems and floating skimmers, city officials said. The new interceptor is expected to collect up to 80 percent of floating debris before it pollutes the city's bays, harbors and beaches. The autonomous water wheel design is modeled after a similar system in the Baltimore Harbor. It sits on a floating platform that rises and falls with the tide and is secured to the creek bottom by guide piles. The platform holds a 14-foot wheel that spins using power from the river current or solar panels to move a conveyor belt. Trash floating downriver is collected in four steps: A boom system directs floating trash toward the Interceptor A spinning rake moves trash from the boom area to the conveyor belt Trash is deposited from the conveyor belt into a collection container When full, the container is moved by a short rail system to be transferred to a standard trash truck 'Depending on the amount of rainfall, the amount of floating trash and debris reaching the Upper Newport Bay via San Diego Creek is estimated between 100 to 500 tons a year,' city officials said. 'The system is expected to reduce that amount by 80 percent.' Local officials said they hope the sustainably-powered interceptor is the first of many more to be installed across the state. 'This is the first of its kind in California,' said Katrina Foley, Orange County Supervisor. 'They got the idea from Baltimore, Maryland 10 years ago. It took 10 years now, but we can't take 10 years for the next one. This one will be a model of an innovative way to collect trash in our waterways. There are more than 100 of these channels where we can get trash picked up and protect our harbors, bays and beaches.' Several government agencies and nonprofit organizations helped fund the $5.5 million cost including the California Department of Water Resources, Ocean Protection Council, Orange County Transportation Authority and Help Your Harbor/Surfrider Foundation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
