Flood Control Detours Bikers

The Santa Ana River Trail may be the most popular biking path in the county, but folks heading to the beach this summer have been in for a surprise--the path is closed between the sea and Adams Avenue, on the border of Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.

An on-street detour is marked for those last few miles, but that portion of the path itself will be closed until November. It’s all part of a massive flood control project scheduled to be completed over the next 10 years.

The project will move gradually up the river, but project engineers say that while portions of the bike path may be temporarily rerouted during construction, it will never be closed completely. The paved path may be moved to the river bottom or to the opposite side of the channel.

Stretching from the northeastern corner of the county to Huntington Beach, the trail is the longest off-road (or Class I) bike path in the county. The river trail is often closed during and following storms because of flooding.