$7.2M Wall To Be Built Along Train Tracks In South OC After Landslide

SAN CLEMENTE, CA — Plans for a $7.2 million "catchment wall" built at a landslide area in northern San Clemente were announced this week, the Orange County Transportation Authority reported.

The wall will be designed to hold back the slipping hillside and get passenger train service running through Orange County to San Diego again, officials said.

The California Transportation Commission has committed the funding to the Orange County Transportation Authority, which owns the railroad tracks, to build the wall and repair the area of slope that collapsed in January.

Once the rain clears this week, the dimensions of the wall and construction schedule will be finalized, Metro spokesman Scott Johnson told The Orange County Register.

According to the newspaper, the wall between the tracks and the hillside will be similar to one built below the city's historic Casa Romantica last year after a landslide threatened the site and the railway, halting service for many months.