NEWPORT BEACH : Backbay Drive May Partially Reopen

After more than two months of being buried under dirt, portions of Backbay Drive may be reopened to the public this weekend, city officials said.

However, the entire road, a popular thoroughfare for bicyclists, joggers and bird-watchers, will not open until the end of May, at the earliest.

A series of heavy rains in January triggered nine major landslides on the bluffs overlooking the bay, forcing officials to close the road, which runs along the eastern perimeter of the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve.

Since that time, officials have been waiting for the bluffs to dry out and stabilize before removing the huge mounds of dirt blocking the road.

The southern half of the two-lane drive between San Joaquin Hills and Jamboree roads will probably be reopened by Thursday or Friday, said Dave Niederhaus, general services director for the city.

“We think we have a way to get it open for this coming weekend,” Niederhaus said.

In two weeks, however, that portion of the road again will be closed to allow the Irvine Co. to remove 2,000 cubic yards of dirt that slid onto the road from a bluff near the Park Newport Apartments, just north of San Joaquin Hills Road. The Irvine Co. owns the land where the slide occurred.

While the Irvine Co. removes dirt and replants the hillside, the city will be doing its own repair work on the northern portion of the road near Eastbluff Drive.

Drainage pipes, which carry rainwater under Backbay Drive and into the bay, ruptured during the rainstorms, causing the pavement to collapse, Niederhaus said.

The city is seeking an emergency permit from the California Department of Fish and Game to replace the pipes and repair the road.

“We need about two weeks of heavy construction work to replace those pipes,” Niederhaus said.

“We have all the equipment in place and we only need the permit to finish up. We will be shooting to do our work while the Irvine Co. does their work. Everybody hopes to finish up by the end of May.”