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Volmarias posted:Whoever picked that color scheme for the index needs to be shot out of a cannon into a paint store. Why does 70 look to be the same shade as 20? Why is it so much trouble to have a spectrum where the colors are close to their neighbor? To be fair, the color scheme isn't its only problem.
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Nov 19, 2012 18:20
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Hey Cichlidae, seeing as how you love fancy intersections I thought you'd appreciate this article about a CFI recently installed here in Utah. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55293779-78/bangerter-south-million-cfis.html.csp
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Nov 19, 2012 19:28
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Chaos Motor posted:To be fair, the color scheme isn't its only problem. Yeah. With how rough the data is, the 3D portion of the chart looks like a tangled mess. It'd be better to show travel time/mile instead of speed - that would make the congestion stand out much better. Instead of contours, the 2D projection should interpolate between to make more of a full gradient. Arcturas posted:Hey Cichlidae, seeing as how you love fancy intersections I thought you'd appreciate this article about a CFI recently installed here in Utah. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55293779-78/bangerter-south-million-cfis.html.csp Looking at the stats on the left, it seems like the intersection was a very shallow LOS F, and the CFI bumped it up to a D or better. CFIs are incredibly clever, and I'd love to see more of them out in this part of the country. ----- I've got some field visit photos to post soon, and if anyone has further comments on Middleport/Meridian, now's the time to post them.
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Nov 19, 2012 23:05
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Alright, here are some Field Photos! Today's trip was to Waterford, which is a large coastal town adjacent to New London. Here, on US Route 1 (Boston Post Road), we're replacing a bridge over Stony Brook. Here is the site, looking northwest (which is actually US 1 South):  Can you spot the unmarked, potentially fatal hazard in this work site?  Let's take a look at how they'll handle the brook while the bridge is being reconstructed. First, see these re-paved trenches?  Those, until recently, contained dual pipes (probably 36"/1m or so) to divert water. The main streambed was blocked with sheetpile. Sheetpile is this stuff:   Despite its looks, sheetpile is relatively waterproof. You can even use it for cofferdams with some appropriate pumping. Once the sheetpile was in, the area was drained, and the main pipe was installed. The main pipe is zinc-plated steel, which is fine for temporary use, as the zinc provides galvanic protection. Upstream:  Downstream:  Leave steel out longer, and it rusts. This is why we make signs out of aluminum these days.  Speaking of signs, let's head up toward Norwich, where a signing project is going to be swapping out some old signs. How old?  1987. I-395 has not been re-signed in 25 years. Ouch. But surely the signals are in better shape?  Yeah, that was a functioning loop detector... about 10 years ago. That's not the only thing that's substandard here! Here is a sure sign your curb radius is too tight:  And one more thing before I close out this post. Do you remember when I said that pedestrians will always try to find the shortest path? Well, the one on the left side of this picture is no exception:  Walking in the road, not five feet from a perfectly useful pedestrian bridge!  Alright, another "one more thing." When you're digging up projects, sometimes you find weird stuff. This old bumper came out of the dirt. I think it's a Chevy, based on a nearby hubcap, but that's about all I know. There are plenty of stories about mob hits being buried in the nearest available construction site, so I imagine I wouldn't be too pleased to hit a bumper when digging for a bridge rehab job. 
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Nov 20, 2012 01:55
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slap me silly posted:What's happening in this thread these days? I can't read 3 years in a sitting. I want to bitch about how Nashville stitched together 3 interstates... all of them are these crossing merges that stall completely in heavy traffic because people will never leave a little space in front of them for zipper-type action. We did just get our first real roundabout though - I'm stoked about that. Haha, Nashville's ridiculous isn't it? My girlfriend commutes up 24 from Murfreesboro to Nashville for work everyday and is always complaining about it. She used to take up through 40 around the west of town but eventually started taking Lafayette through that new roundabout into town and having better luck. I haven't been through the roundabout any time but late at night so I've never seen how busy it can get. Hopefully it goes a bit smoother when they finish the construction on it.
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Nov 20, 2012 04:57
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This deserves to be mentioned. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/19/dangerous-driving-power-pole-appears-smack-in-the-middle-of-quebec-highway/
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Nov 20, 2012 05:08
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Varance posted:This deserves to be mentioned. Yeah, utility companies will do pretty much whatever they want. The article says they were notified 3 weeks ahead of time - we've given them a year's notice in some cases, and they still delay the project. At this point, we're breaking utilities out into their own contracts, and not awarding the main contract until the utility work is done. At least that way, we don't end up with a pole in the middle of the road.
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Nov 20, 2012 13:24
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Gee, if there were only some product you could incorporate into your projects that goes over utility ROWs, and allows them to access their ROW after construction, but without trenching, or damage to the new road surface... But who would be crazy enough to sell something like that???
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Nov 20, 2012 22:03
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Chaos Motor posted:Gee, if there were only some product you could incorporate into your projects that goes over utility ROWs, and allows them to access their ROW after construction, but without trenching, or damage to the new road surface... But who would be crazy enough to sell something like that??? Trying to sell concrete pavement in New England is like trying to sell everclear in Ogden.
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Nov 20, 2012 22:51
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Don't look at it as "concrete pavement", look at it as "a solution to utilities trenching a brand new road". The fact is, it solves a major problem, in an economical way, that is useful to the utility and the public owner, and what it's made of shouldn't impact the resolution of the expensive problems the owner faces.
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Nov 20, 2012 23:26
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Chaos Motor posted:Don't look at it as "concrete pavement", look at it as "a solution to utilities trenching a brand new road". The fact is, it solves a major problem, in an economical way, that is useful to the utility and the public owner, and what it's made of shouldn't impact the resolution of the expensive problems the owner faces. I'd like to say we're forward-thinking and proactive when it comes to maintenance, but it's just not true at all. We only think in the short-term, and we only budget for the short-term. Now that we're looking at a $1.8B budget deficit next year, I think things are going to get even tighter. Of course, if we'd just ponied up the cash to do every project with a benefit:cost above 1.0 (and found some way to monetize a reduction in user cost), we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.
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Nov 21, 2012 00:14
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Alright, we've finished Middleport and Meridian (and, to a lesser extent, Oliver). That. Was. EXPENSIVE.   We spent every cent we could get our hands on, and even then, only managed to grade-separate about half the crossings. In some cases, there were important buildings nearby. In others, the bridges would be far too steep. At least now there are some redundant crossings, so if we need to close the remaining grade crossings in the vague future, we'll have that option available. Also added: The northern road bridge over the Fukov was widened considerably. And, with all this money spent on the cities, Oliver demanded a good plot of land be set aside as parkland to deter future industrial growth north of Middleport. I chose a completely different design for one of the grade crossings (the road + tram toward Oliver) because trams require shallow grades and it couldn't be done in the existing space. We'd better hope these changes pay off in the long run, because Nutmeg is all out of cash for the rest of the decade. And that's it for 1900! 1910 will come with the next update, and with it, a couple big changes.
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Nov 21, 2012 02:46
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Cichlidae posted:We only think in the short-term, and we only budget for the short-term. Now that we're looking at a $1.8B budget deficit next year, I think things are going to get even tighter. You, and everyone else. That's why our financing partner is allocating $500,000,000 in long-term customer financing (10 to 50 yrs) for public works projects using our products. We'll have an announcement after we complete one of the jobs we're doing currently. Since it's private financing, we can strongly encourage projects with a C:B greater than 1. (read: Deny funding for projects whose C:B is less than 1.)
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Nov 21, 2012 16:05
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I thought some people here might be interested in the current Indie Gala deal, which contains Bridge Constructor and Traffic Manager, among other things. They're probably terrible, but hey, they're cheap 
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Nov 21, 2012 20:03
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Thanks for keeping this thread going all this time, Cichlidae. If I may ask, why was US-1 through Charlestown, RI designed to cut what appears to be every single road it crosses (particularly Moonstone Beach Road, Narrow Lane, and the abrupt end of RI-112 and RI-2) in half? As far as I can tell, it's not a space issue, signalized crossings exist elsewhere on this road, and I imagine forcing crossing traffic onto the highway just to weave across it to make the U-turn and get off the highway again on the other side is significantly more dangerous than dropping signals in the middle of a freeway. It's not like there's never a need to cross from roads north of US-1 to roads south of it either. More importantly, is there any hope of this ever being fixed? Successful Student fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Nov 21, 2012 |
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Nov 21, 2012 20:21
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Successful Student posted:Thanks for keeping this thread going all this time, Cichlidae. My wife used to live in the area, so I'm quite familiar with it. Believe it or not, that configuration is much safer than having a signal. You don't have the potential for high-speed rear ends and angle collisions, for one. Additionally, you eliminate left turns; a U-turn and a right turn is much, much safer than a left turn. There are accel and decel lanes as appropriate, and the volumes on 1 are low enough that weaving's not a real issue. It's a great design for a road that you plan on upgrading to a full freeway at some point; 114 north of Barrington is built the same way. The right-of-way is all there, the median is there, the access management is there, you just need to build overpasses and get rid of the U-turn slots when it's done.
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Nov 21, 2012 22:41
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Cichlidae posted:It's a great design for a road that you plan on upgrading to a full freeway at some point; 114 north of Barrington is built the same way. The right-of-way is all there, the median is there, the access management is there, you just need to build overpasses and get rid of the U-turn slots when it's done. Driving around in the UAE I've found that it does breed a massive speeding culture though. Every thoroughfare, from local road to freeway, is rife with U-turn solutions and generally over-dimensioned (multilane, sweeping curves, etc). The problem is that you never get subconsciously triggered to adjust your speed to the road's legal and signposted status; every one of them feels kinda the same. The current solution? Speedbumps everywhere! A festival of rear ends in itself.
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Nov 22, 2012 00:18
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Koesj posted:Driving around in the UAE I've found that it does breed a massive speeding culture though. Every thoroughfare, from local road to freeway, is rife with U-turn solutions and generally over-dimensioned (multilane, sweeping curves, etc). The problem is that you never get subconsciously triggered to adjust your speed to the road's legal and signposted status; every one of them feels kinda the same. There's nothing wrong with freeway speeds when the geometry matches. Have a look. https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.3...2,95.85,,0,-4.5
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Nov 22, 2012 01:05
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Cichlidae posted:There's nothing wrong with freeway speeds when the geometry matches. Have a look. You're right of course but that's not what I meant. Coming from a social conditioning standpoint, I feel that the application of these particular engineering solutions to different kinds of roads within the same geographic area is problematic at the least. There's no perceived difference in functionality so everyone uses local access roads like they're on a quasi-freeway; traffic homogeneity in speed and behavior is simply not there. For US-1 it's the right solution but I see it applied wholesale to an entire country a couple of times a year and its safety implications horrify me.
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Nov 22, 2012 01:29
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While we're talking about design speeds, I'd like to post a pet peeve of mine. I used to regularly commute on this stretch of road and the permanent speed camera on the south side of this spot was my nemesis, it would get me as I let my car coast down the hill in the background. I feel like the wide lanes and huge parking lanes create a big disconnect between the 50km/h (31mph) posted limit and the design speed. Would you have done anything different here?
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Nov 22, 2012 10:35
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Jaguars! posted:While we're talking about design speeds, I'd like to post a pet peeve of mine. See those houses alongside the road? I bet there's lots of families with children living in those.
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Nov 22, 2012 13:15
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nielsm posted:See those houses alongside the road? I bet there's lots of families with children living in those. Yep. The road seems pretty poorly designed with that in mind though, I'm guessing people often just bomb down that road anyway.
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Nov 22, 2012 14:03
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Jaguars! posted:While we're talking about design speeds, I'd like to post a pet peeve of mine. Clearly the situation isn't ideal. A road's geometry needs to match its design speed, or else people won't drive that speed. If you have a flat, straight, wide-lane road, you need to expect people will drive ~70kph or faster. Pretty much every traffic engineering resource out there says that the speed limit should be based on the 85th percentile speed. When the limit and 85th don't match, you will get an increased accident rate due to the speed differential. What's this mean for your situation? You can either a) change the geometry to slow people down (which has the side effect of increasing safety and reducing capacity), or b) make the road an arterial (which will increase capacity and reduce land access). There are lots of ways to do either one of those choices, and which one is chosen depends on the situation. If it were up to me, I'd put in a bike lane in at least one direction, narrowing the travel lanes, and remove the passing zones. This will reduce capacity, though, so it could create a bad situation on nearby roads.
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Nov 22, 2012 15:04
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What's your take on this? Believe it's in China.
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Nov 22, 2012 19:52
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Yeah it was in the news here too, some kind of eminent domain issue (which shows how far China has come IMO). Another 'great' example: Narita. e: VVV Here's the Chinadaily article.
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Nov 22, 2012 20:04
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grover posted:What's your take on this? Believe it's in China.  Is there any more information on this?
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Nov 22, 2012 20:04
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I'm absolutely shocked that happened in China.
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Nov 22, 2012 20:25
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I was reading about this on Wikipedia the other day; They refer to them as Nail Houses and its a pretty common occurrence.
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Nov 22, 2012 22:02
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Opals25 posted:I was reading about this on Wikipedia the other day; They refer to them as Nail Houses and its a pretty common occurrence. There's more than one of these? 
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Nov 22, 2012 22:13
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Well, it sounds like the house in the middle of the road is one of kind, but it's not uncommon for them to be in the middle of new development projects.
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Nov 22, 2012 22:23
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Wow. I can't imagine living at the end of the runway at Narita would be very pleasant.Cichlidae posted:Clearly the situation isn't ideal. A road's geometry needs to match its design speed, or else people won't drive that speed. If you have a flat, straight, wide-lane road, you need to expect people will drive ~70kph or faster. Pretty much every traffic engineering resource out there says that the speed limit should be based on the 85th percentile speed. When the limit and 85th don't match, you will get an increased accident rate due to the speed differential. Interesting. This road probably has extra capacity these days because a motorway extension opened up further north, so I'd be ineterested to see whether they do anything like that when it comes to maintenance time.
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Nov 23, 2012 01:51
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Jaguars! posted:Wow. I can't imagine living at the end of the runway at Narita would be very pleasant.
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Nov 23, 2012 04:33
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grover posted:Nah, they did it right at Narita and buffered it with farmland and golf courses. Seriously, I'm counting like 16 golf courses within 2 miles on direct approach/departure routes. How dangerous are golf balls to turbines?
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Nov 23, 2012 06:18
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wdarkk posted:How dangerous are golf balls to turbines? Not ridiculously dangerous since the turbines are rated against bird strikes. But it'll be pricey and won't be fun for the pilot or passengers.
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Nov 23, 2012 16:12
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We've made it to 1910.  https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByQzqtNM0WuFUVpHTnoxWE5BbFU The world is changing rapidly. The Assembly Line has helped to make automobiles much more quickly, while keeping prices low. Since the inception of the Model T, just about anyone can afford an automobile, and this is already leading some to clamor for automobile-only roads - closed to pedestrians, horses, and carriages. Flight has become more reliable. While daredevils stay aloft longer and longer, futurists speak of the day (decades from now) when one may be able to cross oceans in an airplane. The military, from its base near Farmingham, has been trying to attach machine guns to airplanes, with some success. This is very important. There is war brewing in Europe. All the world's navies are busily modernizing, and while Nutmeg produces fewer ships these days, the region's arms industries are buzzing with activity and proactively increasing their capacity to prepare for an inevitable outbreak of warfare. Immigration is at an all-time high, though new quotas aim to reduce the immigrant swarm somewhat. These immigrants bring with them disease, poverty, and crime, but also new foods, culture, and cheap labor. Rail lines may now be electrified. This is only an option for very profitable lines, such as the shore line and New Sanctum - Hartshire line. Civil engineering is moving forward. You are allowed to build one new bridge across the Fukov. We are in need of at least two more civilian aerodromes. Flat, grassy areas are best, preferably nearby large cities. Get to work!
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Nov 25, 2012 01:19
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Cichlidae posted:The world is changing rapidly. The Assembly Line has helped to make automobiles much more quickly, while keeping prices low. Since the inception of the Model T, just about anyone can afford an automobile, and this is already leading some to clamor for automobile-only roads - closed to pedestrians, horses, and carriages. And so it shall be. Let us free our men from the tyranny of the railroad and its fixed timetables; we shall build an motorway for our fine citizens to motor upon. Edit: Heck, we can do better than that. Lets get an auto loop up in this state, connecting our most important cities; naturally I mean the cities of the east end of the state. Create a motorway connecting the following cities in a loop: E. Hartshire Meridian New Sanctum East Sanctum Green Millfort Bridgefield Fairport Nogahyde Waterbridge Farmingham Back to E. Hartshire Volmarias fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Nov 25, 2012 |
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Nov 25, 2012 01:45
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I vote that the new river bridge connect northwest Meridian with northeast Middleport, the aerodromes be placed near Also, I vote that abandoned railroads be removed entirely from the map after ten years have passed since their abandonment, since they're just mocking us now.  edit: Wait, there's already an airfield near Fairport, isn't there? In that case, New Dublin should get one. Hedera Helix fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Nov 25, 2012 |
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Nov 25, 2012 02:22
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I say that we should put an aerodrome just north of Middleport, or if the upperclass snobs in Oliver complain, just north of Meridian east of the Fuckov, so that the capital can stay in the areal loop. The other airport should probably be towards the east, to catch some of that New Cork patronage. Deep Bend seems like it's located on the longest unbridged stretch of the Fukov, so I vote the new bridge gets constructed there. Also, rumblings of war mean two things: arms trading and warships. I expect that New Dublin's shipyards are going to be worked to the bone to meet the demand. With that in mind, I would like to reactivate the Deep Bend-New Dublin line. If it's ever going to be profitable, now's the time.
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Nov 25, 2012 03:19
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New Dublin ship building!
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Nov 25, 2012 03:21
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Volmarias posted:And so it shall be. Let us free our men from the tyranny of the railroad and its fixed timetables; we shall build an motorway for our fine citizens to motor upon. We're not getting something nearly that extensive. If you want a horse-free road, it's going to be 10 miles, tops, and it's going to be in the southeast corner of the state.
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Nov 25, 2012 04:29
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