At the picturesque wetlands where land meets sea between Carlsbad and Encinitas, construction crews have started to dig in on the Batiquitos Lagoon Double Track Project.
It's a joint effort between Caltrans and the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) to replace an old wooden bridge and improve service.
"The process right now that we’re undertaking is building a platform for the equipment to start building a new bridge that we are going to put at the Batiquitos Lagoon,” said SANDAG's Director of construction and engineering David Cortez. "It's going to replace an 85-year-old bridge (that is) single track with a double track, modern concrete bridge."
The project will add nearly a mile of the new double track, which means trains can travel in opposite directions at the same time.
The current single track is one of many areas that creates a bottleneck for trains traveling in San Diego.
"These improvements, the double tracking to the railroad, will allow us to increase frequencies to Coaster, and additionally Amtrak and BNSF Freight as well," said North County Transit District spokesperson Mary Dover.
She said the project will also improve service reliability and long-term resiliency to sea level rise. It’s also designed to improve tidal flow for local wildlife.
In the meantime, there should be minimal service interruptions during construction.
"We're going to build it parallel to the existing bridge, because we have to keep the trains going as scheduled," Cortez said.
The $166 million Batiquitos Lagoon project is funded by a combination of state and local funds, including the regional half-cent sales tax for transportation administered by SANDAG.
It's one of five double-tracking projects SANDAG is actively planning. Cortez said the other top-priority projects include Solana Beach to Del Mar and through north Oceanside.
"The San Dieguito Lagoon double track, which will link to an events platform for the Del Mar Fair and then a project that we call Eastbrook to Shell, which is a little bit complicated, but that's in the pipeline as well,” he said.
The majority of the work at Batiquitos Lagoon is expected to take place during the daytime on weekdays. It’s planned to be completed in 2028.
