SAN DIEGO — Carlsbad declared a local emergency Wednesday to expedite repairs of coastal erosion that threatens to undermine Carlsbad Boulevard, also known as the historic Highway 101.

Early next week crews will begin placing boulders weighing 4 to 8 tons each on the beach beside the highway just north of the Encinas Creek outlet, city officials said. The additional rock will extend an existing revetment 192 feet to the north.

The work is expected to take three to four weeks and will be done by a contracter with rock obtained from a quarry, Carlsbad City Manager Geoff Patnoe said Thursday. Carlsbad is planning the job with assistance from the California Coastal Commission.

During the work there may be intermittent lane closures and traffic impacts in the southbound lane on Carlsbad Boulevard, between Palomar Airport Road and Island Way, city officials said.

The emergency declaration allows the city to delay or avoid the time-consuming process of obtaining permits otherwise needed from various agencies such as the Coastal Commmission.

City staffers engaged an independent geotechnical consulting firm in mid-July to investigate the site and recommend action related to bluff erosion in the area. A geotechnical report received by Carlsbad officials Tuesday recommended emergency stabilization measures including an extension of the revetment.

“The city takes a proactive approach to monitoring and maintaining our infrastructure, particularly ahead of storm seasons, so we can identify potential issues and address them before they become problems,” Patnoe said in a news release Wednesday.

“We understand this is a heavily traveled roadway, and maintaining its integrity is essential to protecting public safety, as well as property and our coastal environment,” the city manager said.

The existing revetment consists of heavy boulders along 1,270 feet of the base of the bluff, of which 750 feet were installed in 2009 and 520 feet were installed in 2015 and 2016, city officials said.

Small cracks and other signs of erosion have appeared on the pavement north of the revetment, officials said. The roadway protected by the existing revetment appears to be holding steady.

A visit to the site Wednesday afternoon showed the waves had eaten away the base of the bluff, creating a steep cliff of soft earth 20 to 30 feet high on the seaward edge of the highway north of the revetment.

The emergency declaration went into effect immediately. Tuesday the Carlsbad City Council is expected to confirm it, and the declaration will be reviewed at subsequent council meetings until the council ends it.

It’s the fourth time this year Carlsbad has declared a local emergency. In early January, one was used to repair storm drains damaged by heavy rain on the bluffs along Carlsbad Boulevard, near the end of Palomar Airport Road.

Also in January, there were emergency repairs to a water main that broke and created a large sinkhole at El Camino Real and Carlsbad Village Drive. And in June, a routine inspection revealed a collapsed city sewer line that was repaired on the northern shore of Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

Carlsbad is one of many spots along the Southern California coast to see erosion from high tides and powerful waves driven by distant tropical storms in recent weeks. Those concerns have been heightened by a forecast for a powerful El Nino winter, which usually brings heavy precipitation to the West Coast.

The beach along the Carlsbad seawall between Tamarack Avenue and Pine Avenue, near the downtown Village neighborhood, has been scoured to cobblestones in most places for the first time in years. During high tides, waves crash onto the Tamarack beach parking lot, which has been closed to vehicles.

Most of Carlsbad’s seven miles of shoreline is owned and managed by the state Parks Department, although the city has a longstanding agreement with the state to shoulder some of the maintenance.

Oceanside, Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar have all seen their beaches shrink, with big surf threatening seaside homes and state beach parking lots. Multi-million-dollar beachfront homes have been damaged in Dana Point, Malibu and other communities.

Just north of San Diego County, in San Clemente, high waves eroded the base of the beach-side railroad tracks and shorted out underground railroad communications equipment this summer, at times delaying or suspending trains.

New problems this week forced the cancellation of all trains between Oceanside and the San Clemente area until additional repairs are completed. Amtrak is providing a bus connection between Oceanside and Irvine on Thursday and Friday.

All rail service will suspended Saturday and Sunday during a previously scheduled “work window” for routine maintenance and ongoing projects, and it could resume next week. The coastal corridor is San Diego’s only rail connection to the rest of the United States and is part of the Strategic Rail Corridor Network that connects military bases across the nation.

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