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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is allocating $400,000 in federal funding this year for the design phase of the project meant to improve the safety of the coastline along Encinitas and Solana Beach. File photo
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Feds fund planning phase of coastline project

REGION — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is allocating $400,000 in federal funding this year for the design phase of the project meant to improve the safety of the coastline along Encinitas and Solana Beach.

The announcement comes days after Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano) took Dr. Pat Davis of Encinitas as his guest for the State of the Union address on Feb. 4 in Washington, D.C.

Davis’ wife, daughter and sister-in-law were killed in the bluff collapse at Grandview Beach in Encinitas in August of last year.

Prior to the collapse, Levin pushed for the Army Corps of Engineers to provide “long-overdue federal funding” for the Encinitas-Solana Beach Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project. Following the collapse, Levin continued to pressure the Office of Management and Budget to approve federal funding for the project.

The project was authorized by Congress in 2016 with a purpose to stabilize the bluffs eroding from high-energy storm swells and rising sea levels. Encinitas and Solana Beach had most of the entire local cost share of the Planning, Engineering and Design (PED) phase but were waiting initial federal funding, according to Levin’s office.

The $400,000 figure from the Army Corps represents the full amount of federal funding needed for the year. The PED phase will require an additional $1.5 million in federal funding.

“While much more federal funding will be needed to secure our bluffs over the long-term, this is a significant step that was long overdue,” Levin said in a statement provided to The Coast News.