NEWPORT BEACH : Backbay Drive Stays Closed for Repairs

Buried under landslides for much of the last five months, part of Backbay Drive will remain closed until the end of June as workers repair portions of the road that were torn up by falling dirt and subsequent cleanup operations, officials said Friday.

They had hoped to reopen before summer the northern half of the popular recreational trail around the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Preserve.

The road, used heavily by bicyclists, joggers and bird watchers, was closed after unusually heavy rainstorms triggered several major landslides on the 80-foot bluffs that overlook the road.

Officials opened the southern half of the road from San Joaquin Hills Road to Jamboree Road in April and had hoped to reopen the remainder to Eastbluff Drive on Monday. “I have been getting various calls from people wanting to know when the road is going to be reopened,” said Dave Niederhaus, Newport Beach general services director. “We would like to see it open.”

But the reopening was pushed back to the end of June so that workers can repair the asphalt road, which was damaged in January by a landslide on the bluff between the Park Newport Apartments and Backbay Drive below. The Irvine Co. owns the land on the bluff.

Construction trucks further damaged the road while hauling away about 10,000 cubic yards of dirt that had covered Backbay Drive near the Park Newport Apartments since January.

“There were a lot of heavy trucks that went in there. . . . They ripped up the road by doing U-turns on Backbay Drive,” Niederhaus said. “The road was never built for that.”

Tom Redwitz, vice president of land development for the Irvine Co., said that the company has spent about $200,000 to remove the dirt and repair the road.

Meanwhile, the city and county have also been repairing hillsides and drainage pipes in the area.

“We will do a lot more work with drainage ditches and access roads to make that area much more weatherproof,” Niederhaus said.

But even after the road reopens, city officials have planned additional repairs for September that would make the Upper Newport Bay less vulnerable to landslides and subsequent closure.