Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), San Clemente Rail Landslide

The Orange County Transportation Authority contracted Condon-Johnson to perform emergency work to stabilize the hillside next to the railroad track through southern San Clemente, which safely restored passenger rail service. The track work involved drilling large steel anchors approximately 100 feet long into the bedrock of the slope adjacent to the railroad track to prevent it from pushing the track further toward the ocean. The track had moved as much as 28 inches between September 2021 and October 2022, due to storm surge and sand erosion on the coastal side, and the gradually sliding hillside on the other.

Guida was tasked with providing site control, which included recovering the existing horizontal control and run elevations from benchmarks, verifying and topographic survey of the existing slop conditions to restore existing slope, office calculations and field supervision, and supplying topographic data and proposed restoration grades and elevations. Guida furnished and installed surveying work which included providing staking for the limits of construction and clearing and grubbing, and slope staking for the grade beams and shoring. Guida also monitored the grade beams on a daily and weekly basis and performed as-builts at the completion of the project.

On Monday, April 17, 2023, Metrolink and the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency’s Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service safely resumed between Orange and San Diego counties, restoring a vital Southern California rail link. The Orange County Transportation Authority worked to successfully stop the slope movement and stabilize the tracks in south San Clemente.