SANDAG Moves Proposed Realignment Alternatives Into Environmental Document Process

Courtesy of HDR

SAN DIEGO - SANDAG Board will move its proposed rail realignment alternatives for the San Diego LOSSAN Rail Realignment project forward into an environmental review process.

SANDAG states that as part of this environmental process, there will be opportunities for the public to provide input. These will occur in the spring when the Notice of Preparation is posted as well as when the notice of Intent is posted (under the National Environmental Protection Act). Once the NOP is posted, the public has 45 days to provide feedback before a draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) can begin. The final EIR will take roughly three years to complete.

Recently, RT&S reported on the Value Analysis Study released from SANDAG on the project. This study on the Del Mar tunnel included 13 new route proposals, with some of those proposals “refining” original plans.

The SANDAG Board of Directors advanced five route options for the project, according to a report in The Coast News Group. All five will move forward for further study. These route options include:

• San Dieguito Bridge to I-5 Knoll: This will minimize impacts to Del Mar, the Fairgrounds, and San Dieguito Double Track Bridge. The estimated cost is between $3.8 billion to $5.1 billion.
• Under Crest Canyon (Under Jimmy Durante to I-5 Knoll): This will minimize subsurface easements. The estimated cost is between $3.7 billion to $5 billion.
• Under Camino Del Mar (Under Jimmy Durante to Torrey Pines Road West): This will minimize subsurface easements. The estimated cost is between $3.3 billion and $4.4 billion.
• Del Mar Bluffs Double Track Reinforced: This maintains the current alignment, but it will add double track along the bluffs and through Los Penasquitos Lagoon with reinforced bluffs and more seawalls. The estimated cost is between $1.9 billion to $2.5 billion.
• No Build: SANDAG would continue stabilization efforts to protect the single-track alignment.

The North County Transit District owns and operates the right-of-way and therefore would have to sign off on the chosen route. According to the report, NCTD CEO Shawn Donaghy said “the current tracks along the bluffs would have to be maintained as an active line until the Department of Defense decides not to use them anymore.”

However, due to the early stages of the project, Environmental Compliance Manager Keith Greer said, “We’re still at the very beginning. No decisions have been made, and there’s no recommended alignment yet. . . We expect these will morph over time.”

Some residents in the area have been vocal in their opposition to having trains run through a tunnel under peoples’ homes due to “noise impacts, potential eminent domain, and the environment, traffic and local roadways.”

SANDAG Chair and Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner said, “With the values analysis, one of the mandates was to minimize impacts to peoples’ homes, and to minimize even the subsurface eminent domain, where trains would be going under peoples’ homes. That’s why the staff has come up with these alignments that are, as far as we know right now without going further, minimizing those sorts of impacts.”