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

[Swordmaster]

Very nice Alex. Seems like zoom.it is better than gmap (especially with Admin powers ). The "toggle full page" feature is very handy here.

I'll need some more time to digest the pictures; I'm also gonna wait to see what happens next.


Cheers
Willy

[Tarkus]

Hi everyone-

Something you don't see very often--two Tarkusian Cities updates in a week.  We'll delve further into construction on the Tweedy/Ashcroft Corridor and the light rail project this update.  But first, I'm going to reach into the mailbox, going back to Update 99.

What a birthday present this is: an update AND as bonus a pic of the good old drunk engineer intersection plus a major road named after me (again ha) . How cool is that     Thanks my Oregonian friend!  Its funny you mention that Portland bridge - when I was there a few years ago I crossed it twice before I figured out how to take the turn right there!

Thanks for showing how you start off a new Argentum - interesting to see. I wonder now though what was first: the roadmap or the roads in the citytile? This because i see quite some roads there that are not yet shown on pics. But maybe the drawing was made later?  Anyhow - gorgeous to see how you do this, and looking forward to see more soon!

Sounds like I picked a perfect time for Update 99--thrilled to hear you enjoyed it, and I had to ensure I stuck some of the longtime TC followers who had been honored in Argentum 1.0 in the new version.   You wouldn't happen to be talking about the Burnside Bridge, would you?  That one's notorious for some odd turn restrictions, even more so since the light rail tracks were laid on the 5th/6th Ave transit mall.  If you want to talk about drunk engineers, check out this wacky bus lane/light rail track crossing mid block.  Yikes.

The roads in the city tile come pre-map 99% of the time.  Sometimes, I'll draw things that are merely in the conceptual stage on the map, but the vast majority of it is built off the game's actual Congestion Data View map, coupled with imagery of the area for clarity in places with overpasses, or that are otherwise particularly laden with transit networks.  The result is that the map is largely WYSIWYG in terms of where things are actually placed in game, with minor artistic flourishes. 

Another great update. I really like the roadgeek aspect as well as the maps. I'm looking into doing some for my own regions, but the work involved is a little daunting. Incidentally, the style of your maps remind me of the old Thomas Bros. Maps that used to come in large book form (I find them still more practical than a phone for navigation--what good is one when there's no internet?). Google Maps' coloring scheme is nifty, but I think the Thomas Bros. scheme tells you a little bit more about the situation with less need to label everything.

Hoping to see more now that school's done (although I suppose there is the new problem of finding a job and really starting on life...). If you don't mind me asking, what are you a Doctor of? (I guess you can always not answer this question; fine by me--I'm just curious).

Thanks for the kind words, and yes, the Thomas Bros. Maps--particularly those from the mid/late-'90s, up to early 00's (before Rand McNally tried to ruin them)--were a huge inspiration.  Growing up, I'd often sit in car and study the Portland Metro ones, and I've never been a fan of phone/GPS/satnav (an occasional hobby of mine is finding errors with those).  Of course, some of the functional classification could get a bit wonky at times.  I still remember taking issue with how they showed a major arterial that traverses through almost all of Washington County as only a "black line", but it's still miles better than Google's limited options.

And to answer your question, my recently-completed doctorate is in music composition/theory.

Interesting update, Alex, and at 99 an incredible number.

The Western US is certainly omnipresent in your MD, particularly in the prevalence of fused-like grids over more Midwestern/Eastern rectangular grids (or probably more correctly, the distinction newer/older suburbs, with the West having more and larger new suburbs).

Nice touch to include the empty grid. Always good to go back to Argentum (except it misses rail - maybe 2.0 is an opportunity? ).

Thanks, Willy, and it's astonishing to believe this thing's past the century mark now.  The Western US, and its suburban areas, are definitely a huge influence, and influences my layouts in a number of ways.  I try to create patterns that have enough "randomness" in them to make them interesting, without becoming incoherent, and the seeming randomness, coupled with the in-game traffic data, also allows me opportunities for some of the realignment projects that feature prominently here.  One day, I'll have to try a video series like Haljackey has done, and lay bare my thought process while building things up on a blank region.

There is some rail in Argentum 2.0, but not in the parts I've shown thus far.  There's actually an interesting twist with that region, that I haven't fully revealed.  And of course, Chemeketa is getting a bit more rail-y.

Nice one Alex!like this town

Thanks Guglielmo!  Glad you enjoyed it--we'll be back to the new Argentum, soon, too.

Always lurking here, and I'm still enjoying to see your work. Especially the drunk engineer got me. I would never design roads like that 

99 updates is a milestone. You know what that means... we are going to hit the three-digit updates! 

Thanks, Maarten--and yes, the drunk engineer was riotously absurd.  I look back at things I've built earlier in SC4--including things in my more "mature" stage as a player here in this MD--and wonder, "what was I thinking?!"

Here's to hopefully many more updates here.

Hmm, interesting. I see rail, I see light rail. This reminds me of Portland. I think this intersection will get an interesting look--it so happens that I have AVExRRW textures lying in front of me 

Indeed, there is light rail.  And oddly enough, it's a line connecting the airport to downtown, and it's a Red Line.  That's where the similarity stops, however.  Having ridden the MAX a fair bit during the one year of undergrad I spent at Portland State U, I'm painfully aware of issues with that system, and hope to prevent those flaws from stymieing Chemeketa's system.

And more RRW news is good news--you're doing amazing work with that project.  You'll probably see bits and pieces of it sneak into my development updates, as I've played around with it some (though not with any particular fluency yet).  And congrats again on your recent promotion!

Looks like a great intersection under work, Alex!

Glad to see Tarkusian Cities back for Novemeber. 

Thanks, Arthur, and it's good to be back!  That intersection is just one of many.  It's absurd how much the layout in that corridor in South Chemeketa is going to change around as part of this project, and I hope it makes for a compelling read/view.

Curious to see what's happening here

I am too.

Jay!!!! 

*staying tuned*

And there's still quite a bit more to come.  There will be a blitz of TC activity going into December.

This is good news, Alex.    The return of TC will be one of the highlights of the year for sure.  The update makes me think that a crossing will be added soon.  There doesn't appear to be room for an overpass/underpass, so it would have to be a grade crossing.  It will be interesting to see how this area changes as RRW is rolled out.  Good work!

Thanks, metarvo--it's good to be back at this.  The crossing there is just the tip of the iceberg.  The amount of realignment is staggering.

Great news indeed to see a great MD coming back alive.

Robin

Thanks, Robin--hope you enjoy the developments during this latest round of updates.

Looking forward to the update. 

Hope you enjoyed it, and are ready for more.

That's a nice gentle slope and L1 is always pretty    I wonder where the avenue is going and what else is happening in the construction zone....

Thanks, Noah, and there's ton more L1 overpasses where that came from.  Tweedy Blvd is getting a partial expressway treatment, necessitated by the addition of the parallel light rail line.  All will be revealed soon.

Nice teaser, looks like an industrial part of town! I can't wait for more.

Indeed, that's the southern high-tech/manufacturing district, which will probably get developed a bit more once the improvements are in place.  Thanks for the compliments on it!

It's a shame you'll probably have to delete the region after this (does obliterating work?), sounds like it was a growable. See, folks, this is why you never touch the vanilla prop IIDs, including the ones Maxis reserved and never released

The whole region isn't a loss, and I'm still looking into what I can do to save the CBD tile.  I actually have a couple pre-pox backups around on it, and plan to use it to research the prevailing theories on the pox.  That'll depend a bit on RL, however--it's likely it'll get shelved for a bit following these updates, while I tinker under the hood of the city tile.

Great work there. I see a passenger train, so is commuter rail there anyway?

Thanks, and to answer your question, the C&O Railroad had an interesting deal with the City of Chemeketa, to do a trial of passenger rail along the corridor that was planned for light rail.  The commuter rail couldn't be permanent, as C&O's primary intent with the line is freight, but they obliged temporarily for a fairly substantial chunk of change, plus city-funded improvements to their tracks.  It's a "public-private partnership", I suppose.

Very nice Alex. Seems like zoom.it is better than gmap (especially with Admin powers ). The "toggle full page" feature is very handy here.

I'll need some more time to digest the pictures; I'm also gonna wait to see what happens next.

Thanks, Willy, and I'm definitely impressed with zoom.it so far.  I couldn't embed Gmapuploader's stuff (at least, not without mucking around with Google's API).  Hope the next round of construction aids with digestion.

-------
Now, to return to construction activities.  Last we left off, Tweedy Blvd had been closed, and work was starting on realigning and extending Ashcroft Street, instead of having Ashcroft run into Tweedy, south of 35th.

This is facing west at that same spot, after work has begun on building an overpass (facing west).  Ashcroft will pass over the extended section of Tweedy Blvd, with access being provided by a future connector roadway, which will be built a bit later.



This is to the south of that area, showing where the extended Ashcroft Street will meet with 45th Street SE (facing west).  Upon completion of the project, 45th will be closed off just east of this future intersection, instead of continuing across the tracks and meeting up with the old alignment of McCabe Street.



The overpass on Ashcroft is coming along nicely.  Now it just needs some more things to go under it (facing west).



The elevated part of the Ashcroft extension is now hooked into the existing northern section (facing west).  The 36th/37th couplet is still in place.



A temporary alignment of the Ashcroft extension, terminating at 45th, has been built, to alleviate traffic displaced by the Tweedy Blvd closure (facing west).



The new Tweedy alignment is being built under the Ashcroft overpass (facing west).



This is along 35th, past the end of the 36th/37th couplet, and just a bit west of the intersection that had been demolished (facing west).  As you can see, 35th has some substantial issues of its own, prompting Tweedy Blvd extension.



So, that intersection is getting demolished, too (facing west).  You can see the Tweedy Blvd extension sneaking into the picture in the bottom left corner.



This is at the intersection of Nego Way (named after long-time TC supporter Nego) and Anglia Way (facing west), which, as you can see, is also very congested.  Tweedy Blvd will be extended to meet and overtake Anglia Way's present alignment at this spot.



The extension has now been built (facing west).



This is where Tweedy Blvd meets up with the aforementioned "connector" to the grade-separated section of Ashcroft (facing east).  The diagonal road paralleling the rebuilt Tweedy Blvd is part of the old alignment of 35th.  The road that previously intersected 35th has been cut off at the tracks.



A little further realignment work south of Tweedy along the extension (facing east).  This will be put into better context soon.





That does it for this installment.  Stay tuned for Part 3 of this project, coming next time.

-Alex

[vinlabsc3k]

Amazing road-geekery Alex!!

[art128]

Congratulations for the OSITM 4in1 award, Alex!

Wonderful work on your network, as usual

[benedict]

Great to see more from Tarkusian Cities.

[Haljackey]

I always love this style of story-telling. I simply don't have the patience to make nice-looking construction shots, so I applaud your work. Great job!

[sunv123]

Very nice couple of updates, Alex!

Usually, roadgeekery is more than enough for me, but construction and roadgeekery is

[Gugu3]

Cool stuff!

[Tarkus]

Hi everyone-

The Tarkusian Cities update splurge continues.  But first, let's open the mailbox:

Amazing road-geekery Alex!!

Thanks, Vincenzo!  And there will be quite a bit more to come--this December is shaping up to be the one of the most active stretches in the history of Tarkusian Cities.

Congratulations for the OSITM 4in1 award, Alex!

Wonderful work on your network, as usual

Thanks for the kind words, Arthur!  It was great to be back in OSITM for a brief stint, and it's helped with getting momentum going in this MD again.

Great to see more from Tarkusian Cities.

Ben, thanks for the encouragement!  And there's still more to come . . .

I always love this style of story-telling. I simply don't have the patience to make nice-looking construction shots, so I applaud your work. Great job!

From someone who has also developed an intriguing new style of story-telling with BACFS (the NAMite in me can't help but acronymize that ), I take that as quite the compliment.   I've been meaning, one of these days, to find a way to kick my construction realism up another notch.  Perhaps I'll look into that once NAM 32 is done.

Very nice couple of updates, Alex!

Usually, roadgeekery is more than enough for me, but construction and roadgeekery is

Thanks!  I'm glad I could fulfill both your roadgeekery and construction needs here--and there will be quite a bit more to come.

Cool stuff!

Thanks!  And there's more where that came from, on its way.



Last we left off, the Ashcroft overpass had been built, along with a good bit of the new routing of Tweedy Blvd, and work on the light rail line.  Now, we're going to delve a little further into that project.

This is at the south end of the Ashcroft overpass (facing east), where Ashcroft has been temporarily routed to end at 45th St SE.  This temporarily alignment will give way to the permanent alignment this update.



The short, curvy connector roadway between 45th and Stiratt will be replaced by the Ashcroft extension, which will be built to include 4 travel lanes, at least between 45th and 61st during this phase.  Here's the progress on that (facing east).



This is the new Ashcroft/Stiratt intersection, after completion (facing east).  The old connector road can be seen in the lower left corner.



The new Ashcroft/45th intersection (facing east).  The section of 45th up top formerly crossed the tracks and intersected Tweedy Blvd, but now dead-ends just before the tracks.  You can also see the remnants of the old connector road and the temporary Ashcroft alignment here.



The Ashcroft overpass is seen here, fully open to traffic, with preliminary work on the Ashcroft stop on the new Chemeketa Red Line (facing east).



This is along the Tweedy Blvd extension.  (facing east)  Part of the old alignment of 35th has been turned into a roadway paralleling Tweedy on the other side of the Red Line tracks.  You can also see the city's "trial" passenger train from C&O running on the heavy rail tracks.



In order to provide access from Tweedy to Ashcroft, an access road was built, hooking into the 36th/37th St couplet through the industrial area, and providing more direct access to Ashcroft Station (facing east).



The next update will provide a little further clarity as to all the myriad changes undertaken as part of this project.

-Alex

[APSMS]

Three updates in one week! Incredible. These are very nice, even if the whole update deal is still slightly confusing at the moment.

Also, it's good to know I'm not the only one who read those Thomas Bros. map books when I was younger (I read the So. Cal versions, and my dad even had a black and white version from 1985 for San Diego). I'm still amazed that I meet people at my school who don't know which direction north is, but we can't all be geographically sensitive, I guess. (of course, they're usually better than me in other things, so...)

Looking forward to more!

[Swordmaster]

Ha! Don't think I didn't notice it--you slipped in a duplicate image to test us

(http://i.imgur.com/bK0Q2I9.jpg is shown twice in update 101)

Nice updates! Not fully digested yet, though.


Cheers
Willy

[noahclem]

Great OSITM work Alex    I'm really enjoying the reconstructed artery here. I've always liked multi-modal transity arteries like this, both in RL and SC4 and the diagonal nature of this area adds to its character I think. Depending on the nature of the partial expressway treatment you may want to consider implementing parts of it as Symphony.

[Gugu3]

Very nice job Alex

[titanicbuff]

Whooo- thats some complex road building.

[Tarkus]

#BringingTarkyBack?  Stay tuned.



-Alex

[Simcoug]

I think something is playing tricks on my eyes... 

[SimCity V6]

At long last, a new dawn. 

I'd have to wonder if this is the Argentum 2.0 setting rumored in the past, or something new? I guess the return is a big "yes", anyhow. 

[Durfsurn]

  Magnificent!

[APSMS]

 

[Kitsune]

I thought someone needlessly bumped the thread.. but nope, its instead coming back? Thats a nice surprise.