The North Coast Corridor is an infrastructure improvement project in northern

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

that will upgrade road, rail, pedestrian, and bicycle transportation infrastructure, as well as fund environmental restoration. The project has a $6 billion budget, and after beginning the first phases of construction in late 2016 is planned to be completed over the following 40 years.

First phase

The $700 million initial phase of construction began in 2016 with a groundbreaking on November 29 at the

San Elijo Lagoon San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve is one of the largest remaining coastal wetlands in San Diego County, California, United States. History Native American tribes hunted and gathered along the shores of the estuary at least 8,500 years before ...

. The projects in this phase are scheduled to be completed by 2021. The state government is contributing $250 million to this project, mostly coming from the fuel tax levied by SB1, known as the

Road Repair and Accountability Act The Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (Senate Bill 1), also known as the "Gas Tax", is a California legislative bill that was passed on April 6, 2017 with the aim of repairing roads, improving traffic safety, and expanding public tran ...

Highway

Two new bridges are to be built on

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

: one across the San Elijo Lagoon in

Solana Beach Solana Beach (''Solana'', Spanish for "warm wind") is a coastal city in San Diego County, California. Its population was at 12,941 at the 2020 U.S. Census, up from 12,867 at the 2010 Census. History The area was first settled by the San Dieg ...

and

Encinitas Encinitas (Spanish for "Small Oaks") is a beach city in the North County area of San Diego County, California. Located within Southern California, it is approximately north of San Diego, between Solana Beach and Carlsbad, and about south o ...

, and one across the

Batiquitos Lagoon The Batiquitos Lagoon is a coastal wetland and estuary located between southern Carlsbad and Encinitas, in the North County region of San Diego County, California. The lagoon itself consists of 610 acres with a drainage basin of about 55,000 ac ...

in Carlsbad. Other road projects include added carpool lanes and sound barriers. The total cost of the highway portion of the first phase was budgeted for $480 million. The highway expansion faces opposition from environmentalists, who argue that "expanding the amount of space we dedicate to cars not only fails to speed up traffic but also accelerates the breakdown of ecosystems that support life on earth."

Rail

Two segments of the major passenger rail line following the coast from San Diego north, used by

Coaster Coaster (stylized as COASTER) is a commuter rail service in the central and northern coastal regions of San Diego County, California, United States operated by the North County Transit District (NCTD). The commuter rail line features eight s ...

commuter trains and ''

Pacific Surfliner The ''Pacific Surfliner'' is a passenger train service serving the communities on the coast of Southern California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo. The service carried 2,924,117 passengers during fiscal year 2016, a 3.4% increase from F ...

'' intercity trains, are to be double tracked. Work began initially on a segment of track between Cardiff-by-the-Sea and San Elijo Lagoon, including replacement of the railroad bridge over the lagoon. The wooden trestle crossing San Elijo Lagoon was demolished in 2018, after 74 years in service, and was replaced by a modern double-track concrete structure. The wooden trestle had been built in 1944, replacing one built in 1880. Work is ongoing on a similar project at

, including a bridge replacement and of new double track. These projects, as well as

grade crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...

work, are budgeted for $102 million. This railway line was originally known as the

Surf Line The Surf Line is a railroad line that runs from San Diego north to Orange County along California's Pacific Coast. It was so named because much of the line is near the Pacific Ocean, within less than in some places. The tracks are now owned by ...

built in the 1880s by the

California Southern Railroad The California Southern Railroad was a subsidiary railroad of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) in Southern California. It was organized July 10, 1880, and chartered on October 23, 1880, to build a rail connection between wha ...

, which became part of the

Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

. It is currently part of the

LOSSAN Corridor The ''Pacific Surfliner'' is a passenger train service serving the communities on the coast of Southern California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo. The service carried 2,924,117 passengers during fiscal year 2016, a 3.4% increase from F ...

, which forms the route of the Pacific Surfliner. The upgrades to the North Coast Corridor are being done in conjunction with the extension of the

San Diego Trolley The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...

's Blue Line to

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, which is known as the Mid-Coast Corridor.

Other transportation

$40 million is to be spent on bicycle path and pedestrian improvements, along with local community enhancements.

Environment

The

will receive $80 million for restoration efforts, such as dredging and filling to bring sediment to natural levels, as well as additional conserved area to mitigate the impact of the new road and rail bridges. This work is scheduled to begin in 2017.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Project website
Transportation in San Diego County, California