SAN CLEMENTE/DANA POINT : Work to Reopen Highway Begins

Robert Lee was sitting at the counter of the Ichibiri Japanese Restaurant on Wednesday, where business has been hurt by the closure of a section of Pacific Coast Highway, when he learned that work to reopen it had just begun.

“They should have done it a long time ago,” said Lee, one of the restaurant’s managers. “Why did it take so long? I want it to open tomorrow.”

The one-mile stretch of highway in Dana Point, next to San Clemente, has been buried since February, 1993, by tons of earth that was once a bluff.

The $3.1-million project is scheduled to be completed in January, according to Morton August, director of public works and engineering services for Dana Point.

August, who joined mayors from Dana Point and San Clemente at the work site Wednesday, said the permit process went quickly once property owners affected agreed what the solution should be.

Among other things, the bluff will be reinforced and lined with a 600-foot-long wall that will vary in height from 30 to 40 feet, August said. Workers will clear 44,000 tons of dirt and debris from the highway and bluff face.

“I’d like to see it open by Christmas, myself,” August said. The contractor is confident he can meet the January completion date, he said.

The project has involved the cities of Dana Point, San Clemente, the California Coastal Commission, Federal Highway Administration, California Department of Transportation and affected property owners.

Four San Clemente houses on La Ventana were lost in the landslide, and a fifth house on the street suffered significant damage, according to Andy Anderson, emergency services coordinator for Dana Point.

Harry Ginn, who lives on La Ventana across the street and a few houses down from where the hillside gave way, smiled and said he had no complaints with how long it had taken to start work.

Up Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point, Holiday Inn Manager Lynda O’Brien said the reopening will be welcomed by guests who want to pedal bicycles south to San Clemente. For more than a year, a detour has offered a steep hill for those riding that direction.

San Clemente Mayor Scott Diehl said the reopening will help businesses that have been hurt by the closure.

Before the landslide, an estimated average of 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles traveled the closed-down section of Pacific Coast Highway, August said.

The Federal Highway Administration will reimburse 88% of the $3.1-million project, officials said.