Tarkusian Cities (Update 107-08/23/2020-West Chemeketa Reconfig, Part 1)

[thundercrack83]

Well, the Gilmour Parkway looks like it's going to be a great addition, Alex! As always, the construction and the maps are absolutely fantastic! And, congratulations on making it to the Special Interest section for October, my friend! You definitely deserve it!

[EDGE4194]

alex- the updates are looking good. congrats on the award for the month  . great job on the map btw.

[sebes]

With the map that you make, there is indeed only one place were this MD belongs: the Monthly Interest section. I believe it belongs there every month by the way 

The Gilmour project and the Giga-map are just two examples showing why.
I cannot wait for further updates here....

[dragonshardz]

go Tarkus! way to go man!

btw, whatever happened to that mystery highway project?

[Tarkus]

Hi everyone-

Thanks for all the comments and support, and many thanks to the site's staff for the Special Interest recognition this month--I'm really quite flattered, especially to be in the company of some of the other MDs that have been in here, and are currently in here.

Back with another update.  We're back to Argentum again to look at various inadequacies in the regional transportation system, and in the next few updates, I'll be showing some solutions to these issues.

You may be wondering, what is the issue with Argentum's transportation system?  Well, it turns out those "drunk engineers" who built the now-infamous Caldera Lane/Barnaby Drive interchange


had their hand in many other projects in the region.

This includes almost all of Argentum's highway system.  Here's a couple of zoomed out maps extracted from the larger transportation map to illustrate my point (I've upsized the route markers to compensate.)





If you notice the scale, you'll see that the highways curve around a lot over very short distances, following an indirect path.  They probably look like they're going through some sort of mountainous or hilly area.  The problem is, they're not  :

And here's 61 just north of Angstrom (the light blue area)



And here it is north of Argentum



The land is almost flat below the highways and the twisting around is completely unnecessary.    When they were built, it was not anticipated that they would receive much traffic, or that Argentum proper would grow to 65-70,000 people--they were mainly quick-and-dirty retrofits of existing 2-lane alignments.  The only way to improve the highways here is a series of costly re-alignment projects, where entire freeways will be re-routed through the region and at least one new route will be built.  (In addition, Argentum is actually a fairly old region for me, started before I really knew much about the game's scale.) 

This here is the start of work just north of downtown Argentum, an area soon to be home to a massive new hotel and convention center.  To the left, you'll see Highway 4, a model of inadequacy, with its cramped lanes and its awkward interchange with Stone Avenue. 



As you can see, the construction crews are already there, beginning work on widening and rehabilitating the highway and the interchange.   All of the development next to the highway will have to be removed in order to accomodate the right-of-way for the interchange. 



The new hotel nearly done.



Not only are Argentum's highways poorly constructed, its surface arterials are as well.  Here's a couple of other sections of Caldera Lane, which is supposed to be one of the city's major north-south routes.

This is on the north side of town at the intersection with Costa Drive, by the end of Caldera Lane.  The slope is extremely steep, making it difficult to travel at the posted 45mph (roughly 70 km/h for you metric folks) speed limit. 



And this is near the now-demolished Barnaby Drive interchange on the south side of town, with the intersections of Milpont Road and Airport Road.  The road's descent down to the remaining part of the bridge over the inlet is built like a staircase.  In addition, the Milpont and Airport Road intersections are a mere 200 feet apart, which is a serious issue.  The speed limit drops accordingly to 30mph (about 50 km/h), rather low for a road that's supposed to be a "bypass".  The fire department's landing strip is also located here, but is no longer in use, as it is barely adequate enough for a model plane to take off or land.   





Caldera Lane will be getting increased traffic as an important alternate route during the Highway 61 renovation, and thus, the Argentum Department of Public Works, along with county and state officials (all with new engineering staff ), have decided to accelerate the Caldera Lane bypass project.



You'll be seeing much more of the Caldera Lane project in the next couple of updates.  There's plenty of construction pics to come.

And one other little teaser:

Not only is the fire department's airstrip inadequate, the Argentum Airport is as well, and both are soon to be relocated to a new, state-of-the-art facility, located 4 miles northeast of downtown Argentum, in the Ferrum area, which was chosen because it was an adequate distance away from the two large lakes (Emerson Lake and Mineral Lake), and was the flattest large parcel available.  A new highway will be built to help accomodate traffic going to and from the airport.

Here's the start of construction, just south of Landry Road.



Now onto replies:

Ryan (Filasimo):  Thanks!  Hope this update kept your curiosity up . . .

bat:  Thanks, glad you enjoyed the pics!

Joan (Jmouse):  Thanks for the compliments, and I'm really quite happy to hear it was informative.  Hope this update was to your liking!

Pat (patfirefghtr):  Thanks for the entertaining comment!  I'm only an amateur city planner, but I try.  

Jason (jplumbley):  I'm really glad to hear that you enjoyed it--thanks for the feedback!  And don't worry, there will be more SAM stuff next update--I promise . . . LOL.  And I agree with you about the need for some sort of transit development showcase.  I'd definitely be up for that.

David (dedgren):  Thanks for the Special Interest award for the month!  I'm still in shock . . .

Robin (rooker1): Thanks for congratulations on the SIOTM, and glad you enjoyed the update.

Kevin (BigSlark):  I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed the construction pics, and that the DOT was doing good--they're going to have a whale of a time straightening out Argentum, though.  And you can count on some serious freeway construction action when they do.

Pat (patfirefghtr):  Thanks, Pat!

Joan (Jmouse):  Thanks!  I'm just happy to pass along my enjoyment of the transit aspect.

bat:  Thanks, bat!

Adam (Ennedi):  Thanks for the compliments and for congratulating me on the award.  Congratulations to you as well on your SIOTM as well, and from looking at your MD, I think there's a lot I can learn from you as well.

Danthe:  Thanks, I'm really glad you enjoyed the map!

Shadow Assassin:  Thanks for the congratulations, and I do indeed have lots of stuff planned for Wakeman . . . 

Dustin (thundercrack83):  Thanks again, Dustin.  I'm happy to hear Gilmour Parkway and the maps were to your liking, and thanks for the congratulations as well.

EDGE4194:  Thanks, glad you enjoyed the update and hope this one was to your liking as well.

sebes:  Thanks for the compliments!  I'm really quite flattered.  And I'm sure you'll be pleased to know there's plenty of Caldera Lane construction on the way.

dragonshardz:  Thanks!  If you're wondering about the mystery highway project, the "tools" needed to build it are still in the experimental modding stages . . . provided I figure out what's wrong with one of the exemplars, it may not be far off. Stay tuned . . .

Hope you enjoyed this update, and thank you all for your continued support and feedback.  Really.  

-Alex

[bakerton]

Real nice on the road projects Tarkus. Looking for more in the future. JKB

[Filasimo]

hey alex great update! indeed it does keep me curious even more 

[bat]

Another great update! Wonderful work and pictures!

[sebes]

Words cannot say enough - I enjoyed this update so much! 

I had no idea that the Caldera Lane Traject had so may "special effect" constructions on the route... Rush hour in Argentum must feel like one very long ride in a rolercoaster 

No kidding: in my opinion this project is one of the most interesting going on in MD-land at the moment, so thanks for sharing all details and picture on the reconstructions with us!

[BigSlark]

Alex,

I really like how you've plotted the future for Argentum. I like MD's that have a good story and combine that with my well-known road geekery, well, I'll be back soon.

I'm looking forward to seeing what gets rebuilt next.

Cheers,
Kevin

[Ennedi]

It seems you have a lot of work to do 

Your map is very interesting, and the amount of planning you put in it is really great
Knowing your analyzing  skills I am very curious of this future transportation network
Your terrain is almost flat, but it isn't such easy, there are small irregular hills here and there and it needs many terraforming to make flat roads. I think engineers wchich were build these roads earlier were not drunken, but they taken for themselves some money wchich they should to pay for excavators  (Edit: And they didn't know the Bridge H1 Mod  )
More seriously, changing the previous development is a real challenge and it is extremely interesting - not less interesting than building from the beginning. I had such idea with my old region, but collecting my stuff I made a horrible chaos in the Plugins folder and wasn't be able to improve it

Cheers
Adam

[DFire870]

The windy roads remind me of the Austin area, since the Texas Hill Country starts in west Austin, and since the hills are everywhere the roads are very windy and make some very odd twists and turns.

Great last few updates, and I can't wait to see the finished construction.

[Jmouse]

Hi Alex!
For reasons stated previously, I continue to watch in awe as your transport system develops. I would like to know why you chose to build the avenue in sharp stair steps (fourth photo from the end) rather than more gentle slopes. Considering your expertise and talent with transport design, I'm sure you had a good reason, but you have aroused my curiosity.

Until next time...
Joan

[Tarkus]

Hi again everyone-

I'm making two updates in two days, which is unheard of for me usually.  I think you may enjoy this one.  As we left off with the last update, I showed the mess that Argentum's roads and highways were in, including the infamous Caldera Lane disaster.  Well, I'm happy to report that progress has been going extremely well on Caldera Lane.

A few updates ago, the interchange with Barnaby Drive was demolished, and Skill Street was re-routed.



(Image fixed, thanks Pat for catching it! )

Public Works decided to undertake an expensive option to actually fill in part of the Argentum Inlet, to allow for a more direct, land-based route for Caldera Lane.


Other roadways through the area are also going to be re-routed as part of the project, including Milpont Road.   You can see the outline of the new Milpont alignment in this shot.


The overpass over Skill Street is being completed.  The new section of Caldera Lane is designed to be of somewhat limited access, but not up to freeway standards, with a controlled interchange.  The connection from Skill to the southbound lanes of Caldera has been completed here.


(The idea for this partially came from this interchange [link] in Beaverton, Oregon, which I'm quite familiar with.)

This is the new alignment to connect the new section to the existing section, approaching the existing Milpont Road and Airport Road intersections.


The Skill Street connection to the northbound lanes has been completed.  The NB and SB connections intersect with Skill Street proper at a roundabout.


More work on the Milpont Road realignment and connecting it to the new Caldera Lane.




The realignment of Milpont Road has allowed for the demolition of the old alignment, which eliminates the issue with the Airport and Milpont intersections being too close together.


Confusingly, now Milpont Road exists in two disconnected sections.  Here's the other portion, connected to Airport Road.


Finally, a new, modern bridge is built beyond the Skill interchange, making Caldera Lane whole once again.


Here's how the area looks now, after the project has been mostly finished.  Landscaping is still planned.


bakerton:  Thanks, glad you enjoyed the road projects, and hope you enjoyed this latest round.

Ryan (Filasimo):  Thanks for the compliments on the update.  This probably relieved some of the curiosity, but I've got plenty more mystery projects in store.

bat:  Thanks!  Glad you enjoyed the update.

sebes:  Thanks again, and hope you enjoyed seeing the end result of the Caldera Lane project.  And yes, rush hour in Argentum is just like a roller coaster.  That's why no one's bothered to build an amusement park in town yet.   Maybe after some of the highways get ironed out . . .

Kevin (BigSlark):  Thanks, being a roadgeek as well, I can't help it.   There's still plenty of stuff to rebuild, I'm just trying to decide what next.  Well, the MIS is coming along nicely . . . maybe I'll see if I can't squeeze it in in the next few updates . . . 

Adam (Ennedi):  Yes, I do indeed have a lot of work to do on this region.  I've replanned this region so many times, but the changes this time around are going to be much more radical.  I'm hoping to get a new "Transportation Plan" drafted up that I can show you all.  The engineers definitely did cut corners--perhaps they used the money they saved on excavating to go to the local bar.   The redevelopment definitely has been a challenge, and my earlier attempts at it didn't go as well, but I've learned quite a bit since (including how crucial having a slope mod is, which in some spots, you can tell I didn't have ), and have modded some new things that will assist the process.   Thanks for the compliments, and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it.

DFire870:  I could definitely see the Texas Hill Country connection here.  The roads here don't really have an excuse here in Argentum, though.   The region's quite flat.  Hope you enjoyed seeing the end result.

Joan (Jmouse):  Thanks! I'm glad you've enjoyed watching the systems develop.  As far as that staircase Avenue, that was built over a year ago, back when I was young and misguided. And didn't have a slope mod.    I was more concerned about making the roads connect then, but I've really learned quite a bit in that year's time.  I've always had a soft spot for this Argentum region, and now that I know more, I'm having a good time improving it.

Hope everyone enjoyed this latest round.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Pat]

Alex wonderful verrrrrrrrrrry Wonderful last 2 updates, Btw there is a broken pic under the first map.... 

[Filasimo]

great update Alex, wow two updates in 3 days hope its more frequent like that 

[beskhu3epnm]

You are on a roll, friend.

Do you see highways and roads in your mind when you close your eyes? Do you dream of overpasses?

By far, the best example of transportation I've ever seen, and I wish for more updates.

Awesome work!

[bat]

Great work on the avenue, also on the airport!

[EDGE4194]

  wow- very interesting. can't wait for the next construction project.

[sebes]

..and hope you enjoyed seeing the end result of the Caldera Lane project.

I sure did! The result is gorgeous, and even more convenient for the commuters as I anticipated. They WILL be very greatfull after this redevelopping of the main infrastructure in Argentum. 

For the next decenia people at birthdayparties will be divided in two groups: the ones remembering the good old bumby rides and the ones that don't.....

Anyhow, I think the town is now ready for the major redo of the  I-61 (and so am I  )