Race Against Time Falls Short : Boardwalk Job Is on Hold Until Clapper Rails Nest

It could have been the ultimate test of speed and skill on the old Beat the Clock game show.

The task: Build a 700-foot-long elevated boardwalk, part of an Upper Newport Bay bikeway, before the biological alarm clock of a rare West Coast bird buzzes NESTING TIME!

The builder, Gillespie Construction Inc., almost made it. But a delayed shipment of Oregon lumber wasted precious time, and the end-of-March deadline slipped by with a month’s worth of work left on the project.

The penalty: Cconstruction was halted on the boardwalk overlooking the bay until August, when the light-footed clapper rail, a pigeon-size bird on the endangered species list, has comfortably settled in the surrounding marshlands.

“It was going to be a race from the start,” said Jeff Staneart, a project engineer for Newport Beach. Before construction began in late November, the state Coastal Commission placed a special condition on the project that construction would have to stop during the nesting season of the rails, Staneart said.

“The little critter lives in marsh vegetation in coastal wetlands,” state Fish and Game biologist Ron Hein said.

About half of the 500 light-footed rails believed to exist make their home in the Upper Newport Bay region; smaller numbers of clapper rails can be found from Point Conception to Baja California.

The boardwalk should be finished about a month after building resumes in August, Staneart said.

The 1.5-mile path, including the elevated boardwalk section, will begin at the intersection of Irvine Avenue and University Drive and provide a link to the 12-mile San Diego Creek Trail, Staneart said.

The $1.1-million project will include asphalt paths for bikers and runners, separated from a dirt trail for equestrians by a five-foot-wide landscaped strip.