Bridge Engineering Challenge

[Filasimo]

Hey guys,
I was making my island seaport earlier today and i noticed one problem: the lack of a raiseable bridge. Since my seaport ran parrellel to the main island i would have to raise enough terrain both sides to make a bridge high enough for ships to pass so to speak. It then occurred to me that noone has BATTed a raiseable bridge. Correct me if I am wrong on that but I would like to see if anyone is up to the challenge of BATting a raiseable bridge if it is possible. If it is not possible then i ask for the thread to be deleted but I just wanted to through this in here.
Thanks for your time guys 

[jeronij]

It would be feasible. If you mean fake raiseable bridges like some ones which are available for some canal sets...

Really working raiseable bridges ... not sure.... Swamper77, are you there perhaps...?¿, how do the traffic lights work ?¿
Maybe, I repeat, maybe, something could be done using RKT4 props, and T21 exemplars with working traffic lights.... just an idea... 

[mightygoose]

ooh we talking animated props here..... yeah and how exactly do the traffic lights work???

[pilotdaryl]

Even better--bridges with side spans, that 'raise' the bridge up to a suitable height.

[Swamper77]

An animated bridge model could be done. However, the bridge height for the raising section would be fixed as if it was a fixed bridge. It may be possible to define that section with a different height so that ships can pass even if the deck is down (for UDI and commuter purposes).

Stoplights are controlled by stop points in SC4Path files and a time setting in the Automata Tuning Exemplar (TGI: 0x6534284A 0xA998D30B 0x00000001). The default Go Times are:

Road: 6 seconds for each cycle of the signals
Avenue: 8 seconds for each cycle of the signals
Street: 1.2 seconds between sets of vehicles stopping,
         0.75 seconds for stopping at a stop sign

I don't think the bridge can be set to match work with these timings though. So you would probably have traffic stopping for no reason and/or traffic going over an opened bridge in mid air.

Trains only stop long enough for a passing/oncoming train to clear a junction or switch and then they move again. This only occurs at switches/junctions and probably won't work for dealing with a train that is a few tiles away, even if the junction takes up several tiles. The limit seems to be 2 tiles, which is the amount of space that junctions take up.

However, Elevated Rail/GLR and Monorail trains stop at the ends of transit enabled lots for some unknown reason, even if it is not a station. A possible solution for a raising rail bridge could have two transit-enabled lots with paths at a fixed height above the water line, one at each end of the opening span. Some testing will have to be done to figure out if bridges can be drawn between two transit-enabled lots, but I don't have the time for it right now.....

-Swamper77

[jeronij]

Thanks for the info Swamper 

Ok, so fake raiseable bridges would be possible, but not real ones    Better that than nothing 

After reading your post, I dont know if a bridge can be drawn between two TE lots, but I dont see why not. What I can confirm you is that it will work between two puzzle pieces ( demonstrated with the TsingMa DoubleDecker bridge).

[Filasimo]

interesting findings guys im surprised Alex hasnt stopped by to say hello 
jeronij: if you do decide to work on one i look forward to your creation...i love your tsing ma bridge and wish u could enable its double decker feature.

[jeronij]

jeronij: if you do decide to work on one i look forward to your creation...i love your tsing ma bridge and wish u could enable its double decker feature.

In fact the feature can be enabled. And works. The problem is that it causes traffic congestion, and to avoid this you have to manually edit one of the transit exemplars. But the connector puzzle pieces do exist, and work ( even they are outdated after the last NAM release), and the project is not dead. Simply frozen.

[stewart_garden]

I agree that some moveable bridges would enhance the game.  I posted some suggestions in another thread on this topic including some links to sites with pictures.

3) Movable bridges:

I realise that (to the best of my limited knowledge of game mechanics) it isn't possible to make bridges that actually move (save for Peg's lot-based set).  However, when placing low-level bridges across a river in the centre of a city the in-game (and NAM) bridges can look like they wouldn't allow passage of river traffic.  Cities like Chicago have a number of these bridges, and my thinking is that it would be nice to have bridges that look like they can open for river traffic even if they can't.  This type of bridge would also be extremely useful for entrances to harbours etc.

This website (link) has an extensive summary of bridges in Chicago.
This New York government document (link) has a summary of bridges on the Harlem river, and the Wikipedia article (link) also has some information.

My personal opinion is that I wouldn't mind if they weren't animated, I would be happy if they just looked like they could raise and lower.

Stewart

[rooker1]

I really like this idea and would love a bridge like this.

Also, I have another question along the same lines.  Is it possible to create a bridge that starts at one level (low sea level) and ends at a higher level (passable for ships).  I hope that makes some sense. 
See, I wanted to create three bridges in a line with the middle one able for ships to pass under.  Each bridge would be connected to a piece of land.  I did think about making the land in between raise but I want to make it as small as possible to appear as if it were all one bridge.
Any thoughts?

Robin   

[Filasimo]

here's an interesting idea i just thought of, wouldnt it be possible to create the movable bridge as a starter piece and have capacity stats as a result or something along that line?

[threestooges]

-rooker (robin)
If I understand your question correctly, you seem to want a flat stretch of bridge, have it increase in height in the middle, and lower again to the water level for the rest (something similar to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana. If this is the case, make 2 small islands where you want the raised part of the bridge to fit and stretch a 'raised road' bridge between the two islands and whatever type of bridge you wish for the rest of the spans. If you are using avenues/highways, use one way road bridges to achieve that same effect. The islands will be visible, but I would recommend hiding them with a seawall set or something (I would recommend jeronij's breakwater set). Also, I believe Hableurg was working on a bridge similar to what you described, but I don't know how far along it is. He has a thread for it in this forum I think. Hope this helps.

[mightygoose]

well surely you could just have the entire raised piece as the centre section, if thats doable....

[TheGunkid]

Hey guys,
I was making my island seaport earlier today and i noticed one problem: the lack of a raiseable bridge. Since my seaport ran parrellel to the main island i would have to raise enough terrain both sides to make a bridge high enough for ships to pass so to speak. It then occurred to me that noone has BATTed a raiseable bridge. Correct me if I am wrong on that but I would like to see if anyone is up to the challenge of BATting a raiseable bridge if it is possible. If it is not possible then i ask for the thread to be deleted but I just wanted to through this in here.
Thanks for your time guys 

I have the fix,But you'll need  bridge hight mod.
Step 1,make two 3x3 Islands in middle of the channel
step 2,Drag two oneway 'Plain[NAM]' bridges to the islands.
step 3, Use the 'raised' oneway bridges, and you should have this:

That should hold you untill  someone makes that bridge.

[jeronij]

Nice tip  . Thanks for sharing 

[Zaphod]

I think a bridge that looks like a drawbridge/raising bridge but didnt function would still be very awesome

I don't see why it would have to function anyways, because except for ferries and the occasional maxis ship(which I never see because I don't use those crappy maxis seaports) there is no moving sea traffic that would necessitate that function. Personally I think it would be fantastic for short waterways and rivers,where you might have a few plopped somy ships but no ferries because there is no reason for them .

[Sir Charles of Dunlap]

After placing the bridge like that, could you then go into SC4 Terraformer, and remove the islands?

-Charlie

[Pat]

Charlie if you look closly you can see the road actualy reappears so there would be no way to remove the islands at all...

[willvette]

I've got a Challenge, but this may resurrect the Double-Deck Bridge Experiment .  NAM has Dual Networking Puzzle Pieces (Underground Rail Dual Networking, Elevated Rail Dual Networking, and GLR in the center of the Avenue), so everybody already has the required pieces....right?  I'm asking to make bridges for these, plz.

[Sir Charles of Dunlap]

So why can't it be done?

Just needs a lot to sit in between and make look more complete.

-Charlie