South Carlsbad State Beach, along the stretch of coast below Carlsbad Boulevard. Photo: Sam Trenholme via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Anyone who has biked south on Carlsbad Boulevard toward Las Encinas Creek this month has run into the detour. The southbound bike lane between Solamar Drive and Island Way is closed while a crane lowers boulders, some weighing six tons, onto the beach below. Carlsbad is racing to shore up an eroding bluff under one of its busiest coastal roads before winter storms arrive, in a year state officials warn could bring an exceptionally strong El Niño.
How the emergency unfolded
City staff first noticed erosion along south Carlsbad Boulevard during a routine inspection on June 25. They began monitoring it, setting out warning cones and sealing cracks in the pavement to keep water from seeping in. An independent geotechnical firm hired in mid-July concluded the bluff needed emergency stabilization, and its Sept. 8 memo warned that the erosion could threaten the roadway without prompt action.
The city declared a local emergency the next day. A reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune who visited the site on Sept. 10 described waves cutting into the base of the bluff north of the existing rock wall, leaving a steep face of soft earth 20 to 30 feet high on the seaward edge of the highway.
“We understand this is a heavily traveled roadway, and maintaining its integrity is essential to protecting public safety,” City Manager Geoff Patnoe said in the Sept. 9 declaration, according to the Carlsbad Current.
The declaration let the city skip formal bidding, which staff said would otherwise take four to six months. The California Coastal Commission’s staff issued an emergency coastal development permit on Sept. 17, and the commission concurred on Oct. 8. The city also secured approvals from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and California State Parks, according to a staff report reported by The Coast News.
Rock on the beach
The fix is a familiar one along this stretch. A rock revetment, essentially a sloped wall of large boulders, already runs about 1,270 feet along the base of the bluff: 750 feet built in 2009 and 520 feet added in 2015 and 2016. The emergency project extends it about 192 feet north, with the possibility of a longer extension depending on what crews find.
Boulder deliveries began the week of Sept. 29, and a large crane arrived Oct. 6 to lift rock from the roadside to the beach near Las Encinas Creek. The project is expected to cost about $1.9 million. Work began Sept. 30 and is expected to wrap up in November or December.
Until then, the southbound bike lane stays closed, and the city has asked drivers on that stretch to plan for extra time.
The bigger problem behind the rocks
The revetment buys time. It doesn’t settle the long-term question of what to do with a road that sits on the edge of a retreating coast.
In June 2023, the City Council directed staff to pursue a plan to move the southbound lanes of Carlsbad Boulevard between Solamar Drive and Island Way inland, next to the northbound lanes. That concept carried an estimated price of $280 million. The city is now looking for faster and cheaper options. Patnoe signed a contract of nearly $200,000 with the engineering firm GHD to develop five conceptual roadway alternatives addressing erosion and flooding along the corridor.
“The goal is to determine whether there are practical, more cost-effective approaches that can achieve the city’s objectives while maintaining flexibility to respond as coastal conditions and available funding evolve,” his memo said. Any findings will go to the council at a later date.
A coast getting ready for El Niño
Carlsbad isn’t alone. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a state emergency declaration on Sept. 21, saying the developing El Niño was already breaking records and could become the strongest on record. Strong El Niño winters tend to bring bigger swells and higher water levels, which push waves farther up the beach and into the base of bluffs.
Up the coast in Encinitas, the City Council on Oct. 14 directed staff to look at sand replenishment and other measures that might be available under the governor’s declaration. Del Mar declared its own emergency on Sept. 22 over sediment buildup at the San Dieguito Lagoon inlet.
For people who use south Carlsbad Boulevard, the practical message is simple. Expect construction near Las Encinas Creek through the end of the year, plan an alternate route if biking south, and keep an eye on city updates once winter storms begin.
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