Railroad Freeway vs. Tunnel; Harbor High Grad Weds Heir
OC INSIDER by Rick Reiff
Talk of freeways elevated over railroad tracks or tunnels bored into mountains makes for interesting headlines and sparks debate. But close observers of OC-Riverside traffic intrigues suggest that such multi-billion-dollar schemes are many years away, if ever. Shorter-term fixes involve direct improvements to the 91,extension of Riverside’s half-cent sales tax this fall would earmark $490 million for upgrades. Still, The Irvine Company has created a stir with its suggestion of a raised freeway on railroad right-of-way along the 91. Former Irvine Mayor Bill Vardoulis accused the company of trying to derail his plan for a tunnel under Cleveland National Forest that would carry traffic past future Irvine Co. neighborhoods. The company said it was only responding to a request by Riverside County officials for input and said its proposal was just a concept, albeit one that the company thinks would better address the 91 problem and raise less environmentalist ire than Vardoulis’ idea. But Vard-oulis says a tunnel could move light-rail trains, electricity, water and fiber optics, in addition to cars. Vardoulis runs BV Engineering in Irvine and said he has spent $150,000 promoting the tunnel, but insisted he’d realize no financial gain from a project: “We do subdivisions, not tunnels”
They’re back: Newport Beach psychotherapist John and Cheryl Jolliffe, from Lanikuhonua, Oahu, and the wedding of daughter Brynn Jolliffe to Hugh Beckley Foster, son of Hawaii’s Campbell Estate heir Cynthia Foster. Newport Harbor High grad Brynn, 29, wore something borrowed,a $100,000 SignatureFit ring designed by Jean-Francois Albert, one of 400 guests at the sumptuous affair
They’re back, too: Harriett and Irv Wieder, from a visit with Ambassador George and Julia Argyros in Madrid, Spain. “George goes to work through a tunnel from the residency to the embassy
They are adding more art of California artists and have paintings from Joan Irvine Smith’s gallery,” Harriett reports
All-star lineup: Representing Tawny Kitaen, Susan Wiesner of Los Angeles and John Schilling of Newport Beach. Representing Chuck Finley, Gerald Phillips of Newport Beach
A winner in the “regionalization” of the L.A. Times is Ann Conway, promoted from society writer in OC to society writer for the entire paper. Conway says she’ll continue to live in Huntington Beach although, “I may need to get a helicopter.
