"So far in the series of storms, if you want to call it that, we've lost one pylon and 17 bracings off of the pier," City Manager Andy Hall told the San Clemente Times after weeks of high tides and surf from Hurricane Marie hit the city's shoreline. In the same account, Hall described ocean water filling the pedestrian underpasses under the railroad. Crews pumped them out, sometimes only to watch the next night's swell fill them again.
This fall, three repairs are running on the San Clemente coast, and they are finishing in an awkward order. The rebuilt section of the San Clemente Beach Trail is closest to done. The pier repair is set for spring. The sand is the one thing that keeps waves off the trail, the tracks and the underpasses, and it has no start date.
The trail is in its finishing stage
The work behind the trail closure is OCTA's Coastal Rail Emergency Project, Area 3. It is building a 1,400-foot catchment wall on the bluff side of the tracks at Mariposa Point, running from the El Portal beach access to Linda Lane, and rebuilding the San Clemente Pedestrian Beach Trail as part of the job. Construction started in September 2025.
OCTA's construction alert dated October 2, 2026, says crews have removed the temporary K-rail barriers along the tracks. Work is continuing on landscaping, irrigation, handrail installation, trail surface preparation and site restoration. These are finishing tasks. OCTA's current estimate is that the trail reopens to the public when the project is complete in Fall 2026. The San Clemente Times reported that Hall expected the work to wrap up around October rather than the September the city had hoped for. Grading and finish work were still ahead, and no firm reopening day was given. OCTA's own trail flyer once projected a summer 2026 reopening. That date has passed, so the fall estimate is the one to use.
According to the flyer, the rebuilt section will be an elevated path beside the tracks with open coastal views and a retaining wall topped with fencing. OCTA says it was designed to fit the coastline and improve safety. The flyer doesn't describe lighting, seating or surface material, so those details will show up when the trail opens.
For now, the trail runs on two schedules:
| Trail segment | Status per OCTA |
|---|---|
| North Beach parking lot to El Portal | Closed during work hours, reopens at the end of each workday, open Sundays |
| El Portal to Linda Lane | Closed until project completion |
The northern stretch is fully walkable on Sunday mornings and on weekday evenings after crews leave. The section along the new catchment wall stays closed until OCTA announces it is finished.
Getting to the sand in the meantime
OCTA lists these closures and openings for the Area 3 zone:
- The Mariposa underpass is closed.
- Beach access at Dije Court and at El Portal is temporarily closed for public safety.
- The El Portal beach underpass and the Linda Lane beach underpass are listed as open routes to the beach.
OCTA's page calls El Portal access closed and the El Portal underpass open, and the wording doesn't make the difference clear. If El Portal is your usual way down, check OCTA's interactive detour map, linked from the project page, before you go. The map is more current than any article, this one included. The September surf also flooded the Linda Lane and Riviera beach accesses, the Orange County Register reported. An underpass listed as open can still be wet after a big swell.
The pier is open for walking until spring
At the pier, structural engineers checked the damage and judged the structure safe for pedestrians and maintenance vehicles, Hall said. The city has limited anything that puts heavier loads on it, including a planned car show. "We want to get that fixed before we have things like a car show on the pier or multiple vehicles out there," he said.
The repair is likely to wait until spring, after the king tides expected in December and January. The city hasn't set a final cost, though Hall called the repairs "fairly costly." The reasoning is straightforward. The city doesn't want to fix the pier only to have the year's highest tides damage it again. That same logic applies to the rest of the coast. Repairs hold up only as long as there is enough beach to absorb the water.
The pier deck is still open for walking. Near the deck is the San Clemente Junior Woman's Club Sand Toy Station near the showers north of Fisherman's Restaurant. It runs on a "borrow, play, rinse, return" system and is the city's first approved station of its kind.
Two sand plans, neither with a start date
Wider beaches are what would keep waves off the new trail, the tracks and the underpasses. In September, the city and OCTA each moved on sand.
On September 15, the City Council declared a local coastal emergency and authorized up to $1 million for sand at North Beach. The City Manager was directed to find affordable sand to truck in. The Register reported likely inland sources such as Palm Springs or Prado Dam.
On September 28, OCTA declared its own rail emergency. That plan covers about 690,000 cubic yards of sand in total. Roughly 240,000 cubic yards would go between North Beach and Mariposa Point, the same stretch as the trail work, and 450,000 would go south of San Clemente State Beach. The emergency speeds up contracting and procurement but doesn't remove environmental review or permitting. OCTA named Surfside-Sunset as a sand source. Placing sand at this scale near the rail corridor takes marine dredging equipment, and OCTA said dredge availability is limited. It will move forward when a work window opens. The Register reported on October 2 that large U.S.-qualified hopper dredges are scarce and often booked months ahead.
As of early October, neither the city's trucked sand nor OCTA's dredged sand has a public start date. Voice of OC's October 1 coverage of the city's search for sand gave no start date either.
That leaves a gap. The trail along the catchment wall should reopen this fall. The pier fix comes in spring. The beach in front of both will go into king tide season at roughly its current width.
The rail line runs through the same gap
The trains also depend on that beach. On September 8, OCTA announced a temporary closure of the coastal rail line through San Clemente after severe waves. Metrolink and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service resumed on Monday, September 14, after weekend stabilization work.
There is another rail closure next weekend, and this one is planned rather than storm-related. On October 10–11, 2026, the Pacific Surfliner will run no trains anywhere between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, and no bus bridges will be provided. Amtrak Connection bus routes will keep running, but without their usual train connections.
What Measure M would pay for
The sand question is also on the November 3 ballot. Measure M would raise the sales tax by 1% for 10 years. It is estimated to bring in about $15 million a year, split equally between beach protection and fire protection and wildfire preparedness. The full measure text and the city's analysis are the places to start for anyone weighing a vote.
Coastal dates through early November
- October 8–11: Carnival Colossal at Vista Hermosa Sport Park, with rides, games, a beer garden and live music. The first day includes a sensory-friendly hour from 4 to 5 p.m.
- October 10–11: No Pacific Surfliner service along the full corridor.
- Any Sunday until completion: The North Beach parking lot to El Portal segment of the trail is open all day.
- November 3: Measure M on the ballot.
- Fall 2026, no fixed date: OCTA's estimate for reopening the El Portal to Linda Lane trail.
OCTA sends weekly project emails through a sign-up link on the Area 3 page. The reopening announcement for the Mariposa Point section will likely appear there first.
For owners of homes near the coast between North Beach and Linda Lane, it helps to keep the trail reopening, the pier repair and the still-unscheduled sand work in mind before listing, refinancing or planning a project. At Shaun Hurley Homes, we follow these timelines as part of our day-to-day work on the San Clemente coast. If you'd like to talk through how they affect your plans, schedule a confidential consultation.
