Coastal train service suspended this weekend in San Diego County

All coastal rail service in San Diego County will be suspended Saturday and Sunday during the fourth of seven weekend “absolute work windows” scheduled this year for track maintenance and construction projects.

The entire 351-mile LOSSAN corridor, from downtown San Diego to San Luis Obispo, will be closed, so Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains will not run those two days. Metrolink trains will be suspended on routes between Oceanside, Los Angeles and Ventura.

In San Diego County, a large part of the weekend’s work will be the relocation of train signals and the construction of an embankment and a retaining wall as part of the San Diego Association of Governments’ ongoing Batiquitos Lagoon double-track project in Carlsbad.

The second set of tracks will allow north- and south-bound trains to pass each other. The Batiquitos project is part of plans to double-track the entire coastal route, about 75% of which has been completed so far.

Work at Batiquitos also includes building a concrete-and-steel, double-track railroad bridge to replace a wooden trestle from the 1940s.

Environmental mitigation work for the project includes the restoration of nesting sites for the California least tern, a native bird in danger of extinction.

Sand taken from the lagoon during the construction will be used to widen nearby Ponto Beach. The total estimated cost of the project is $166 million, according to SANDAG.

Work also will take place on SANDAG’s...