FEB. 1, 2019
B23
T he C oast News
New railroad track, improvements complete in Cardiff By Staff
ENCINITAS — In January, SANDAG construction crews brought a new railroad track into service and completed necessary rail-crossing improvements for a planned Quiet Zone in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. These achievements are milestones for the San Elijo Lagoon Double Track Project, a collaborative $79 million rail improvement effort between SANDAG, North County Transit District, Caltrans District 11, and the Federal Transit Administration to construct a second railroad track between the cities of Encinitas and Solana Beach.
This allows passenger and freight trains to operate more efficiently without pulling over to allow other trains to pass. The project began in early 2017 and added 1.5 miles of second main track from Cardiff-by-the-Sea to the southern border of the San Elijo Lagoon. The new segment of double tracked rail line creates more than four miles of continuous double track in the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) coastal rail corridor. The second track in Cardiff-by-the-Sea features a new concrete rail bridge, put into service last
CALIFORNIA physicians train staff to set up a plastic surgery clinic at Hue University in Vietnam. Courtesy photo
Local nonprofit helps open clinic in Vietnam By Staff
CARLSBAD — ConnectMed International, a Carlsbad nonprofit dedicated to bringing healthcare to underserved parts of the world, helped launch Hue University’s first-ever Plastic Surgery division in Vietnam. Hue University is now the only plastic surgery training facility in central Vietnam. ConnectMed is a nonprofit organization that improves access to surgical care for youth in underserved communities with congenital and acquired deformities, and supports sustainable healthcare through educational partnerships and interactive telemedicine networks. Earlier in January, surgeons and nurses from the University of California San Diego, Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania, representing ConnectMed, traveled to Vietnam to complete a week-long educational and surgical collaboration with Hue University of Medicine to formalize the division. “We’re proud to announce that Hue University is now one of three plastic surgery training facilities in Vietnam,” said ConnectMed President Amanda Gosman. “Local surgeons will have the medical and surgical training they need to provide sustainable healthcare
where it’s widely inaccessible.” Since 2013, ConnectMed has supported Hue University surgeons through collaborative partnerships. To demonstrate its support of the new division, ConnectMed helped formalize the launch with a continuing medical education (CME) conference and charitable surgeries in partnership with Hue University surgeons. The conference featured presentations on facial reconstruction and microsurgery from Dr. Amanda Gosman (UCSD), Dr. Gordon Lee (Stanford) and Dr. Phuong Nguyen (UPenn). During the CME conference, participants also benefited from interactive broadcasts of live surgeries and a hands-on lab providing surgical training for the treatment of facial trauma. The surgical teams from ConnectMed and Hue University worked closely together to successfully complete 11 surgeries for low-income local adults and children, including tissue expansion for a young burn patient and post-mastectomy microsurgical breast reconstructions. For more information, visit ConnectMed.org or contact Executive Director Rita Abbati Albert at ralbert@ connectmed.org or (858) 2018965.
September, which replaced the original 80-year-old wooden trestle bridge that had been in use since the early 1940s over the San Elijo Lagoon inlet. The new rail bridge contributes to the long-term health of the lagoon as its wider set support columns allow for increased tidal flows. Adding secondary track along the LOSSAN rail line improves both the service and efficiency of San Diego County’s coastal rail corridor for commuters and freight alike. It eliminates the previous need for meeting or passing trains to take turns using a single track. To date, SAN-
DAG has double tracked approximately two-thirds (39 miles) of the LOSSAN corridor. For three weeks, the Chesterfield Drive rail crossing was closed to through traffic in order to enhance the safety of the crossing for all crossers. Improvements made at the Chesterfield Drive rail crossing, between San Elijo Avenue and Coast Highway 101, include: — Constructing a separated multi-use Class I bikeway and pedestrian path — Building new ADA-accessible sidewalk and ramps
— Installing new traffic signal and rail crossing equipment — Modernizing the crossing warning system — Improving rail crossing signals and gates — Installing additional safety signage These improvements will enhance bicycle and pedestrian safety and accommodate the City of Encinitas’ future Quiet Zone for Cardiff-by-theSea, which eliminates the need for train engineers to sound the horn when approaching the at-grade crossing. To date, other project milestones include the
construction of a retaining wall north of the San Elijo Lagoon to keep the rail tracks separated from the lagoon inlet, a pedestrian undercrossing at the southern end of the lagoon, and track and signal improvements south of the Solana Beach train station. As the San Elijo Lagoon Double Track Project nears completion later this spring, final construction activities will include revegetation within the project limits, regrading and finishing work near the new pedestrian undercrossing, drainage installations, and other assorted items.