NEWPORT BEACH : Backbay Drive, Trail Will Reopen Friday

For the first time since January, Backbay Drive and its popular biking and jogging trail will be reopened to the public Friday afternoon, allowing cars, runners, bikers and hikers to travel the entire Upper Newport Bay.

The trail was closed in January after heavy rainfall triggered more than a dozen landslides that blocked Backbay Drive, which cuts along the picturesque bluffs of the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve.

“It is so far into the summer that we need to get this accessible for folks,” said Dave Niederhaus, director of general services in Newport Beach, which overseas maintenance operations.

But even after its reopening, sections of the road will be closed periodically for spot repairs.

“We want to get it ready for the next rainy season,” Niederhaus said.

Along the northern portion of the road, the city has been repairing large, metal drainage pipes which carry rainwater from the bluffs under the road and into the bay. By Friday afternoon, those repairs will be far enough along that riding a bicycle over the path will not be a hazard, he said.

Also, the Irvine Co., which owns the land which was the site of the most damaging of the landslides, has been repairing pavement near San Joaquin Hills Road that was torn up by falling dirt and subsequent removal operations.

“There was much more damage to the road than we first thought,” Niederhaus said, explaining why officials have taken half a year to repair the damage left by several heavy storms. “We found more failure points and more damage than earlier estimated.”

The southern portion of the road, between San Joaquin Hills and Jamboree roads, has required little repair and has been accessible to the public since early spring.

He said the remaining repairs will only close portions of the road for one or two days at a time.

“We hope to be out of there within a month,” he said.