Aug. 8—SANTA CRUZ — State authorities have handed a local transportation agency a hefty grant to help it update its infrastructure in the face of a warming climate.
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission was awarded a more than $1.36 million Climate Adaptation Planning grant by the California Transportation Commission, the Santa Cruz commission's interim Executive Director Mitch Weiss announced at its meeting last week.
The funding, complemented by a local match of $177,470 that was required to win it, will allow the commission to complete resiliency planning studies along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line at four locations especially vulnerable to climate change hazards as part of its ongoing Zero Emission Passenger Rail and Trail Project.
"These are the Capitola bluffs, La Selva Beach and Manresa bluffs, Harkins Slough rail crossing and Pajaro River railroad bridge," said Weiss, adding that the project will develop short, medium and long-term climate resiliency concepts within these areas.
According to a release from the commission, the estimated $1.5 million project will consider impacts of sea level rise, flooding, bluff retreat and coastal erosion.
Capitola officials are well aware of the alarming pace of coastal erosion along the city's bluffs with city staff already studying options for how to adapt to the undercutting of Cliff Drive, a road frequently stuffed with cars, bicyclists and pedestrians that runs only a short distance from the rail line.
Meanwhile, Depot Hill, the 3,800-foot section of coastal bluffs stretching from Capitola to New Brighton State Beach, is the most rapidly eroding section of sea cliffs in the county, according to distinguished professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz Gary Griggs. The transportation commission owns the rail line right-of-way along large portions of Depot Hill that extend to the edge of the bluff.
The commission has also long been aware of bluff erosion at Manresa State Beach where the cliffs run adjacent with the rail line. When the devastating parade of atmospheric river storms battered the Central Coast in late 2022 and early 2023, commission staff reported that its crews discovered two slope embankment failures along the rail line that required immediate addressing and repair.
The Harkins Slough area in Watsonville has also been known to flood during heavy storm events.
The commission ordered a Project Concept Report for the zero-emission rail effort in late 2022 and it came with a $9.2 million price tag and roughly two-year timeline. The report is expected to be finished in early 2025 and a summary of its findings will be shared in the spring.
Weiss also noted that the commission has just wrapped up a months long public engagement effort for milestone 2 of the concept report, which included details about track and trail alignment and vehicle types for the passenger train.
"Over 500 comments were received," said Weiss, adding that the feedback will be summarized and included in a more in-depth update for the commission at its September meeting.
Commission staff are now ready to embark on the third milestone of the study involving further refinement of concept alignment designs as well as station and layover facility and maintenance locations, according to Weiss. The public input process will kick off this fall, he said.
Originally Published: August 8, 2024 at 9:28 a.m.
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