Re: Santa Barbara County - Update: The End.

[canyonjumper]

Your rural area looks great 34.13 gives a great view of the rolling hills, I like it

                Your friend,
                               Jordan

[Ol.S / Benoit]

Such an amazing work, I really like the way you manage your rural areas, very realistic

[io_bg]

Very nice update, I particularly like the pic with the rail bridge spanning the dried up river.

[RickD]

The first series of updates in my MD was about Interstate 5 that runs through the region.

Please remember that my Santa Barbara is set in an alternate universe. In reality, of course, I-5 does not go through Santa Barbara.

Since then I have changed (improved?) it quite considerably.

I now want to show you some of the changes.
You might want to go back to Update 1 to see the "before" situation.

35.1

Many 4 lane sections have been upgraded to 6 lanes. Occasionally there are still lane drops. Especially at elevated sections. The elevated parts have not been upgraded yet.

35.2

I-5 crossing San Marcos Pass Road which has also been upgraded to 6 lanes.

35.3

There are two interchanges close together. To minimize weaving a C/D setup has been built here.

35.4

I-5 <-> W Turnpike Rd.
There was a roundabout interchange here before. I did not like it though

35.5

This is currently the widest section of freeway in the county with up to 12 lanes (counting merge lanes).

35.6

I-5 <-> S Patterson Ave

35.7

End of C/D setup.

35.8

The redesigned interchange with Las Positas Road.

35.9

6 lanes also through rural parts.

35.10

It was easy to add two more lanes at E Turnpike Rd. The interchange has already been built wide enough.

35.11

Upgraded interchange with W 22nd Street at the central cemetary.

35.12

The hill had to be carved out to make room for the extra lanes. I-5 is now 8 lanes near the CBD.

35.13

The interchange here has been removed. It was redundant with the next one only a few blocks away.

35.14

Interchange with N 11th Avenue near the CBD.


To be continued...



Thank you so much for all the comments. I am very sorry but I have no time today to answer them individually. I wanted to get this update out before I leave for my vacation and I still have so much to prepare. 
I am going on a camping trip through Norway. Thus I'll be pretty much off the grid for the next weeks. Please leave comments while I am away. I am looking forward to reading them when I return.

[Sciurus]

I wish you to have a nice trip through Norway!
For Santa Barbara, it's still wonderful, I really love your city! I want to buy a house there!

Guillaume

[supremec]

Wow very nice 

[Exla357]

Before and after comparisons are simply stunning! Have fun on your trip to Norway, updates will be missed here!

-Alex

[Terring7]

Have a nice vacation

[peter007]

Great highways.
Your intersections look very realistic

[nbvc]

Nice work with the highway.

[ricardomiranda]

Nice High Way , great update !

[bat]

Nice pictures of the highway and intersection!

[Paul 999]

What a cool update! You city need the 3 lanes network of RHW 4.2 (my city's two)

[Houston_Fan]

Very nice update!  Maybe you could have reserved an extra tile on the left side of the interchange shown in picture 35.14 so an avenue could go over I-5.

[blade2k5]

I noticed a page or two back on your MTD map you had Murrell Rd listed as one of the stops on the Mesa.  Funny thing is, I lived on Murrell Rd from '75 thru '81.  A pleasant surprise it was even mentioned considering it's only one or two blocks long.  Nice job on the region as well, nice to see what my first accurately scaled map looks like developed.  Keep up the good work.

[Schulmanator]

Great looking stuff. I continue to be impressed.

[kwakelaar]

Great update with the widening and improving on I-5.

Hope the weather will be nice in Norway, always a risk of course. I will be leaving for Norway end of July myself, going to Moss, Norefjell and Tromoy.
Anyway enjoy your holiday.

[noahclem]

Nice work updgrading I-5. My favorite interchange is 35.14 (the last one). Also, nice touch of realism removing the interchange that was too close to the other and adding the C/D setup in that other area. I'd love to see a bit more fractional-angle stuff in Santa Barbara County.

Hope you're having fun in Norway!

[sumwonyuno]

Enjoy your trip, and great job on the RHW upgrades!

[RickD]

In today's update we will continue our travel along I-5 where we left off last time. This time you might want to re-read Update 2 to see the before situation.

36.1

The rail line is crossing over I-5. Speed limit on the freeway is 35 mph due to the short and dangerous merging area.

36.2

This is the interchange near the CBD. It looks quite different than before. You might remember that this is the tile I had to rebuild due to the prop pox.
I-5 comes in from the bottom of the pic and continues to the left. The interchange is still a pain for the motorists. It is way over capacity.

36.3

But there is no room to improve it.

36.4

The biggest problem is that I-5 narrows down to one lane on the eastbound flyover.

36.5

And there is way too much weaving going on.

36.6

Sunken alignment through downtown.

36.7


36.8

East of downtown I-5 is still only 4 lanes wide.

36.9


36.10

The elevated sections have not been widened yet.

36.11

This interchange adds two lanes towards the east.

36.12

6 lanes again in Montecito.

36.13

The interchange with US-101 coming in from the north and sharing alignment with I-5 to the west.

36.14

There is only a half interchange for the commercial district. This needs to be improved in the future.

36.15


36.16


36.17

I-5 leaves the region to the east towards Los Angeles.



Replies:

supremec, Exla357, Terring7, peter007, nbvc, ricardomiranda, bat, Schulmanator, noahclem, sumwonyuno:
Thanks for the compliments.

Sciurus:

I wish you to have a nice trip through Norway!

Thank you. The trip was really great. It was my first time in Norway and it definitely wasn't the last. The landscape is stunning. But it is a very expensive country. 

Paul999:

What a cool update! You city need the 3 lanes network of RHW 4.2 (my city's two)

Thanks. Yeah, I'm really anxious to use it.

Houston_Fan:

Very nice update!  Maybe you could have reserved an extra tile on the left side of the interchange shown in picture 35.14 so an avenue could go over I-5.

An upgrade is planned but some houses will have to be demolished. Fortunately in Sim City this is much easier than in reality.

blade2k5:

Nice job on the region as well, nice to see what my first accurately scaled map looks like developed.

Thanks, it is a great map to play on. I wonder if it is really scaled 1:1. When comparing to Google Earth I had the impression that it is a bit compressed. The hills seem higher than in reality and the slopes steeper. But this could also be due to SC4's odd scaling where it is almost impossible to build houses on the hills like in real Santa Barbara.

kwakelaar:

Hope the weather will be nice in Norway, always a risk of course. I will be leaving for Norway end of July myself, going to Moss, Norefjell and Tromoy. Anyway enjoy your holiday.

Overall we were quite lucky with the weather. But you don't go to Norway for the weather anyway. And to quote my father: There is no such thing as bad weather. There is only wrong clothing.
We traveled from Kristiansand through Stavanger and Bergen to the Geiranger Fjord, then returned to Kristiansand along RV13 and RV9.