Repairs to fix the crumbled road at San Onofre State Beach kicked off this week and surfers should be able to pull up to the sand to ride waves by next week – just in time for many schools on spring break.
Tractors and heavy machinery are out there this week filling in the collapsed dirt between the bluff and the beach, where a big gap has kept the access road closed since early February.
“Everybody is pretty excited, fingers crossed that next week’s rain doesn’t do more damage,” said Craig Ephraim, a board member and past president of the San Onofre Surfing Club.
Ephraim and a handful of other club members showed up over the weekend to help spruce up the area, clearing bamboo and overgrown bushes in anticipation of the beach’s reopening.
Heavy rains gushing through a storm drainage runoff system the military installed to help a fairy shrimp habitat area on the cliff above flooded the toe of a slope, and with ocean erosion during high tides and strong swells battering the dirt entry road from the sea side, it collapsed.
The repair work is being done by Camp Pendleton and State Parks; the military leases the land to the parks system. The road should be ready by April 1.
During the road repairs, access to an upper concrete lot that has remained open and holds about 30 parking spaces may be impacted. The lower lot can hold about 170 vehicles.
“Everybody is cautiously optimistic,” Ephraim said. “Everybody is really stoked to be back to being able to park on the beach and back in the water again. I literally haven’t surfed since they closed it.”
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