Three Rivers Region

[Kokopelli]

This weekend I caught up on two years worth of 3RR. I fell off the map in the fall of 2009 and just came back. RL and other stuff just keeps coming. More than a lot has happened here since I left. I was never a big poster, but it is nice to see several familiar faces still regularly on the board. I really like the Real Roads and the new 3-track addition you are working on. Since my daughter got a new lap top, I have her old desktop that I can now use as an SC4 machine. No more having to give up the computer because my wife needs to pay bills. Maybe I can get back to some game play again. I'll post pics if I can remember how. Sorry to hear about your grand son, that is really tough. I too lost my dad at the end of 2009. Your son seems to be doing well. Thank God. My daughter, a junior in high school, is looking at colleges. Fortunately the police keep arresting people so there is no shortage of indigent clients to represent. No rest for public defenders. I guess I need to congratulate Matt for passing the bar. He was just staring law school last I posted. Good to be back. I'll check in again soon.

Bob

[dedgren]

Setting up the new laptop...

It'll take a while.  I'll be back.


David

931554

[threestooges]

Welcome back Kokopelli! Always good to see someone back around here after a long absence. Nothing like job security I suppose (though if there was a sector that I wouldn't mind seeing slack off a bit in terms of demand, it'd be that one). How long have you been doing the public defender thing?
-Matt

[dedgren]

Tomorrow, among others, we'll take a short trip out to the tiny village of New Sweden, where they're having a good old-fashioned North Country winter.



Still working at configuring stuff and trying to better organize the thousands of files that make up 3RR.

Later.


David

931746

[buddybud]

Still working at configuring stuff and trying to better organize the thousands of files that make up 3RR.

Hope you do a better job than me in that department

[Kokopelli]

Thanks Matt, good to be back. I have been doing criminal law for about 20+ years now. The first two on the "dark side" as an assistant DA. All of it in Texas. How 'bout you, what are you doing as a new lawyer?

[dedgren]

2012 F-437/R-5 Construction Update

Part of the benefit of doing something like 3RR for a long time is the ability not just to write about what happened in the (some would say fictional) days before it existed but to provide a historical account over a meaningful period of time of things that are currently happening.  As I was preparing the post covering a recent visit to the village of New Sweden, I remembered that it had been greatly by the recent completion of the F-437/R-3 section of the long-planned "Pineshore Ring" freeway.  This road was first seen in October, 2007's 3RR "Proposed Freeway Map" [linkie].  A subset of the map is shown here.



You can see the section of F-437, then called the International Airport Freeway, completed in 2005 west from F-37 (just off the map to the east) to the airport.  At that point the freeway ended and the route designation reverted to R-47, which was the regional road that F-437 replaced.  At that time the freeway was proposed to extend west over the South Fork of the Wind River then, turning north, up over the Creen Hills and bypassing the City of Ellsworth to the east and terminating at F-28 just south of Barrett's Lake.  This proposed alignment was approved in 2003 in that year's Five Year Update to the 1998 Regional Transportation Master Plan.

By the time construction started in 2008, things had changed significantly.  The area between Ellsworth and the river along R-8 had been subdivided and developed literally overnight, and southern Barrett Township on both sides of the South Fork had become one of the hottest residential growth areas in the region.  3RR's transportation planners were up to the challenge, though.  In a little over a year, a new alignment was proposed, adopted and purchased, mainly through eminent domain.  The right-of-way was relocated south of Ellsworth through farmland located in north South Fork Township much of which was already under contract by developers.  The freeway then was planned to curve north, picking up R-3 in the process, and run in that direction just east of the Barrett-Two Moon township line.  F-437 was to end in an interchange at F-28, and R-3 was to continue on a two-lane alignment across the Wind River and R-6 (the North River Road), and proceeding over Purvis Creek, up over the West Hills and then curving northeast to terminate at the existing route just west of Mount Steffen in DeLong Township.  This two-lane stretch was designed on a 300 foot/90 meter right-of-way with extra land at the R-6 intersection for a possible future "Super-2" upgrade.

By 2010, construction was under way, and things looked like this.



We posted that progress back in November, 2010, here [linkie].  This is what we had to say at the time.

This construction, now almost complete, involves a new six mile/ten kilometer stretch of F-437 extending west from the freeway's current end at the airport entrance, then crossing the South Fork of the Wind River, then turning northward to join F-28 at the 28 kilometer marker just west of the current interchange of that latter road with R-3.  This will complete the entire length of the F-437 freeway, and will greatly alleviate congestion in and around the rapidly developing Ellsworth area.  R-3 will be duplexed with F-437 from the point where it is crossed by the freeway southwest of the Ellsworth town limits northward to F-28, where it will then proceed on a new two lane alignment (designed to be easily upgraded to a "Super Two") over a new bridge crossing the Wind River and proceeding for 3.5 miles/5.6 kilometers until rejoining the existing R-3 alignment just west of the Delong Mountains.  The old truss bridge currently carrying R-3 across the Wind River will be demolished when the new bridge opens in mid-2011.  Exit 29, the existing F-28/R-3 interchange, will also be removed when the new roadway opens.

Construction proceeded uneventfully and the entire new freeway and road were opened just a little behind schedule in October of last year. 



A late addition was the planned extension of R-6 west of its current junction with R-3 to the new road.  It will then duplex with R-3 south to the new intersection, then continue west on its current alignment.

Demolition of the old R-3 truss bridge south of New Sweden and Exit 29 on the F-28 freeway along with the removal of the bridge approaches was originally planned for the summer of 2012, completing the project as originally planned.  That, however, isn't going to happen.



The bridge was built in 1931 and reconstructed in 1989.  It is rated "deficient" by 3RRDOT, but that is based only on narrow roadway width, as the trusses and pilings are in excellent condition.  While there is now a new all concrete bridge with a wide deck on the new highway a little over a kilometer to the west, the residents of New Sweden strenuously opposed removal of the old one and the interchange, as they provide the village with direct access onto F-28.  The village council saw the lack of access to the south shore of the river and the freeway as a death sentence for New Sweden's businesses in that they are heavily dependent on patronage by residents of Pineshore and other urban communities to the east.  This concern was made worse by 3RRDOT's construction of R-3 north of the river as a high-speed two-lane with access limited only to the existing crossroads with R-6.  In the end, New Sweden's position carried the day, and the truss bridge and Exit 29 interchange, to the dismay of some, will remain.

Referring back to the last map, R-47 now extends north past its former terminus at R-8, duplexing with that route through Ellsworth and then continuing north from R-8 on the old R-3 roadway over the Wind River, through New Sweden, and ultimately ending at the northern terminus of the new R-3 roadway.  R-16, which used to end east of Barrett's Lake in Harwell, now duplexes with F-8 over the South Fork to Ellsworth, then along the old R-3 roadway southwest to interchange 5 on F-437.  When the short spur of R-6 is completed this summer, the section east of R-3 near New Sweden will become a local road.

So there you have it.  There are other road and highway developments to catch you up on, but this one has been in the works for a while.  We'll stay in this area to see New Sweden in just a bit.


David

932486

[Rady]

Hi David,

any news about the Million-View-Contest? Just curious ...

[RickD]

Ah, a roadgeek update.  Your maps are excellent.

[noahclem]

Love the maps, plans and back story David    The previous picture with the guided fishing etc looks great too 

[Will12]

Nice David

[threestooges]

Thanks Matt, good to be back. I have been doing criminal law for about 20+ years now. The first two on the "dark side" as an assistant DA. All of it in Texas. How 'bout you, what are you doing as a new lawyer?

Working for the "dark side" for the past year and a half (yes, the DA's office, despite how that term is thrown around on both sides, heh heh). It's been interesting so far, and for the most part fairly rewarding. Handled several felonies at various stages as a law clerk/volunteer, but now I'm starting to get my feet wet with them again, so it'll be interesting getting up to speed with the new realignment and all. Hopefully it'll be just as interesting and rewarding 20 years from now as well.

Loved the tour of New Sweden, David. Interesting  story about the bridge, though I do wonder how maintenance costs and all will be handled by 3RRDOT. Not sure they factored in the redundancy, but it's good to have the backup should anything happen.
-Matt

[Swordmaster]

Ah, return of the great road maps. 'Mazing! 

Cheers,
Willy

[mike3775]

I want to add 3 days to my guess since the board was down about that length

[Will12]

Me too that should be a default for all guesses

[mike3775]

I have to assume David is having way to much fun with his new toy 

[dedgren]

Well, it all seems to be sorted out now.

I have to assume David is having way to much fun with his new toy 

Fun isn't quite the right word, my friend.  Fits is more like it.  At the puzzle piece creating end, every program I'd used before seemed to need tweaks and special attention to get them running right.  Beyond that, most every custom content creation program needed to be re-downloaded.  My graphics card doesn't seem to like SC4, either.  But here we go.



A work day today, but I'll be back tonight.


David

937733

[noahclem]

Looks great     Good luck getting situated on the new machine 

[mike3775]

Well, it all seems to be sorted out now.

I have to assume David is having way to much fun with his new toy 

Fun isn't quite the right word, my friend.  Fits is more like it.  At the puzzle piece creating end, every program I'd used before seemed to need tweaks and special attention to get them running right.  Beyond that, most every custom content creation program needed to be re-downloaded.  My graphics card doesn't seem to like SC4, either.  But here we go.



A work day today, but I'll be back tonight.


David

937733

Hence the smiley face after.  Whenever I have issues with a new toy, I always say I am having fun with it because I have to laugh about it in order to avoid chucking it out of the third floor(attic) window where my office is located.

I love those tracks

[Girafe]

project is going slowly but surely 

rail looks a little blurred on the curves trust in you to avoid this