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NEWPORT BEACH : No Reopening Date for Backbay Drive

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City officials don’t know when they will be able to reopen Backbay Drive, which was closed in January after walls of mud slid from the bluffs overlooking the scenic road that is popular with bicyclists and joggers.

Heavy rains and a failed hillside drainage pipe loosened the earth, dumping tons of mud onto several portions of that roadway and on a nearby section of San Joaquin Hills Road. In some parts, mud is piled about 15 feet high, said Rick Higley, the city grading engineer and geologist.

The Irvine Co. owns much of the bluff and has agreed to clear the roadway, Higley said. But he has not yet heard when the work will be performed.

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Irvine Co. spokeswoman Dawn L. McCormick said the company is working with specialists to determine a cleanup plan. The bluffs were still too unstable this week to begin clearing the mud, she said.

“The hill needs to stabilize before we can do much,” McCormick said. “And we’re waiting for the rains to stop before we do anything.”

The closure of Backbay Drive has been frustrating for bicyclists. “There are so few neat areas like that to go for bicycle rides,” Higley said. The semicircular road stretches for more than three miles along the banks of Upper Newport Bay.

Backbay Drive’s closure forces cyclists to use Jamboree Road and to compete for space with cars traveling at near-freeway speeds, said Jim Von Tungeln Jr., an avid cyclist and chairman of Irvine’s Bicycle Trails Committee. “It ain’t fun during rush-hour traffic times,” he said.

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