May 2025 Luncheon with SANDAG’s Danny Veeh and Bruce Smith
RASC took a trip down south to the balmy shores of San Diego and heard about SANDAG’s planning update for the LOSSAN corridor from Danny Veeh, Rail Planning Program Manager, and Bruce Smith, Principal Design Engineer.
Rob Klovsky, Senior Vice President at Platinum Sponsor HDR, gave us a little background on HDR’s work with SANDAG, including the Del Mar Tunnels, before introducing Danny, SANDAG’s PM for Del Mar, and Bruce, who worked with Rob on the emergency repairs on the Del Mar bluffs in 2000.
Bruce opened by thanking RASC for partnering with SANDAG to bring back the California Passenger Rail Summit last fall. Look for more information on that program in the coming months.
He covered the importance of SANDAG and the LOSSAN corridor: one in seven rail passengers start their ride in San Diego County. With 3.4M intercity riders, the corridor is still seeing high ridership in spite of interruptions in service, and leads the country in ridership outside of the East Coast.
Of the long list of projects SANDAG has completed since 2008, and that many RASC members have provided services for, more than 75% are double track projects, totaling $1.6B to date, and covering over 60 miles in San Diego County.
The goals for the San Diego segment include double tracking and curve straightening along the entire corridor, completing the Del Mar realignment, and completing the Miramar realignment.
With $5.2B in design projects and good local support, SANDAG competes well for state and federal funds to support their vision of improved safety, capacity and speed, system resiliency, renewed bridges, and alleviated bottlenecks.
Bruce highlighted Carlsbad Village Double Track and Trench which has a $5M commitment from the City of Carlsbad; Encinitas Double Track which will add 2.9 miles to 12.8 miles of continuous DT; Miramar Alternatives Analysis aimed at bypassing steep grades and sharp curves, and will add a station at UCSD; Rose Canyon Wooden Bridges Replacement; Grade Separation Feasibility study covering eleven high volume crossings; and a Caltrans-led effort for an extension of city rail to the border.
Bruce handed the mic to Danny, who kicked off his portion of the talk with an impressive video of the Del Mar Bluffs crumbling below the right-of-way. The area sees six inches of erosion per year, in spite of five stabilization projects.
“It’s a battle against nature,” Danny emphasized. “For a long term solution, we need the realignment project.”
He outlined the decades of planning efforts for the corridor, and pointed to the significant community and political interest in the project, coupled with a focus on the goals, objectives and impacted stakeholders that has allowed for the realignment project to maintain momentum.
He then gave RASC members an overview of the detailed and elaborate realignment options, including ten alignments connecting the different portals. The key issues learned include minimizing impact to private property, minimizing disruption to economic generators, and minimizing conflicts with prior and ongoing investments. With that, four alignments were proposed by staff, and the options are ready for CEQA updated scoping.
Bruce returned to the floor to discuss active construction projects and talked about the impact inflation has had on bids. SANDAG’s nine active projects include San Onofre Pulgas Phase 2 which includes passing track, a new bridge and Phase 3 planning; Red Beach Bridge over Las Flores Creek; Eastbrook to Shell on San Luis Rey River including replacement of a bridge from 1916; and Batiquitos Lagoon DT that includes replacement of a 1926 bridge, in coordination with Caltrans and working within the limitations of Fish and Wildlife and the Coastal Commission. Bruce had so much more to report, but we have only so much space.
The Designer tossed a friendly challenge to the Project Manager, citing the 30 year design life permit from Coastal Commission. “Hopefully Danny can get his project done in time,” Bruce joked.
Bruce continued with an extensive slide show detailing the bluffs’ needs and limitations, ranging from tie backs and soil nail walls to winter beach loss, grunion runs, and unexpected environmental consequences like cowbird trapping that impact the projects along the southern coast.
Danny closed by sharing how the resiliency issue unified political and community support, ultimately leading to $300M to move the project forward.
With these two on the project, SANDAG has solid leadership to achieve tremendous success on this corridor.
Thank you, Bruce Smith and Danny Veeh, for the highly informative presentation. Thank you, J.P. Ziegler, for finding a great location with delicious food. And thank you to our attending RASC members, and our 2025 Platinum Sponsors, HDR and Moffatt & Nichol, our Gold Sponsors GHD, Olsson, and Zephyr Rail, and our Silver Sponsor EMI, whose participation makes our scholarship program not only possible, but robust!
RASC is committed to the education of the next generation of rail engineers, with the goal to provide scholarships for undergraduates interested in transportation. Funds raised from these luncheons support that initiative directly.
Join us! Sign up now to become a member of the Railway Association of Southern California (2025 RASC Membership) and be first in line for the next program.
Sponsor us! Help us grow our scholarship base. Sponsor a program by reaching out to J.P. Ziegler (jackson.ziegler@railpros.com) or become an annual corporate sponsor (RASC Sponsorship Levels).