choco's attempts at BATing bridges

[choco]

io_bg: thanks again, Sir!

Kitsune:    i kinda have to chuckle......i originally was planning on a monorail cable bridge.....but abandoned it (well, changed the network) because the Maxis cables were not working correctly.  it was a problem reported by pagenotfound, i believe.  monorail bridges are a cinch to make......have anything particular in mind? 

ScottFTL: thank you.....im glad someone is finding them useful.  i realize the HSR isn't a widely used mod, but i use it alot.....

i hadn't realized the street bridge was released.....   im still trying to nail down a small problem with one of the T21's.  i'll find out what the deal is.....i presume it will be, but im not sure how it'll get uploaded.  lots of activity going on, so i'll get an answer as soon as feasibly possible.   

[Andreas]

I saw that the Concrete Street Bridge was released on the SimCityKurier site.  Will it also be available on the LEX?

Uhm, oops... Looks like I forgot to upload it to the LEX when I was doing my NAM upload spree.    Sorry about that, I'll fix that as soon as I have a chance.

[scottott999]

Absolutely love your stuff.  Can we get some more road and street bridges pretty please!!!???!!!!      I'd love to see a stone bridge and/or brick bridge.  I'm not sure if its possible but i would like to see something decorative perhaps with statues facing outwards and another with two monuments serving as the anchor points at each end.  Perhaps traffic could flow around the momument itself.  I know draw or lifting bridges would not be fuctional but perhaps and eye candy one with gate houses. Just some of about 100 thoughts

[choco]

hi scottott999!  always happy to see new faces around.....

auto bridges are definitely in the plan for the relatively-near future.....my initial goal was to fill the gaps in monorail and El-rail/GLR where there was only a single style bridge.  since then, the scope has grown dramatically.  insofar as your suggestions, i would like to see much of those as well.  regretfully, my BAT skills are not up to par to create complex decorations or the like.....its my hope that once the Light Rail Bridge Project is complete, i may be better equipped to produce a few higher quality models.

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was testing out another idea......asymmetric cabling.

 

[Andreas]

Interesting idea - but I think that only works if the pylon isn't perfectly vertical, or if the part of the bridge on the right side (on your pic) is very short.

[vester]

You are right about that Andreas.

The cable could go into an anchor block.

[choco]

i haven't wrote the RUL yet.....   the short span will have pylons underneath, so only the long span is for water traffic.....



but ya gave me another idea, Andreas....

[Andreas]

but ya gave me another idea, Andreas....

And you haven't even asked.   Could somebody give me some truckloads of free time, so I can finally finish all those goodies for the LEX? 

[deathtopumpkins]

Wow, great work lately! Glad to hear there are plans to do some road bridges... I bet you could make some really nice ones.

But I do have a question... What ever happened to your plain RHW bridges, particularly the ones that were just a copy of the el-RHW model? I came into a situation recently where they would have proved really handy.

[choco]

they're around, but not quite done last i checked.  just needs some modeling i believe.....

[Nardo69]

choco, there is a nice example of such a bridge described by Andreas in Croatia near Dubrovnik:



The Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubrovnik

The pic of the bridge in high resolution:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dubrovnik-F.Tudjman-Bridge.jpg

I had been there once years ago on holiday in the last phase of its construction.

Before the bridge was built the situation was really funny: you actually saw the outskirts of Dubrovnik not more than 300 or 400m in front of you separated by a small fjyord but the signpost said "Dubrovnik - 21km" - of course our Bus made the 21km at that time ...

[choco]

an excellent example of a bridge, Nardo69    sounds like that bridge was needed....they are definitely interesting from a structural standpoint.

i was working from a similar design implemented on the Rama VIII bridge in Bangkok, Thailand.....though scaled down a bit.  these types of bridges need RULs, but they are actually straight-forward and quick to write.



i think a 2-tile highway bridge would be nice......   though im not having much luck with the highway bridge RUL.....      

[TheTeaCat]

That looks stunning 

Absolutely stunning 



TTC

[Nardo69]

Nice one choco!

I just wonder about the amount of cables on the shorter side of the pylon - IMHO like the bridge at Dubrovnik there should be less cables on the shorter side especially because IRL these cable are (*censored*)  expensive not only during construction but also to maintain.


Another question by me: I remember that Jeroni had big problems combining railway and highway on the Tsing Ma Bridge.
Combined road / railway bridges are really rarely to find these days - in Germany I know only one active bridge that is the bridge ove the Mosel at Bulay where the railway uses the upper and the road the lower floor. Older bridges where railway and road shared one level where usually replaced by a sparate bridge or the railway line went out of service. An exception is the Rhinebridge at Wintersdorf (D) / Roeschwoog (F) that is now a road bridge but the railway line can be acivated within hours by the NATO.

On the other hand Tramways / GLR mostly pass bridges together with road bridges - even on the famous Galata Bridge in Istanbul.
So to avoid Jeroni's problems with the comnined railway / highway bridge I had the idea of an "eyecandy" GLr-in-Avenue-Bridge - just the texture show the GLR, the GLR istself goes underground by two special lots with transit switch GLR->Subway and vice versa.

Would it be very complicated to equip an existing avenue (or road bridge) with the GLR-in-Avenue (resp. GLR-in-road) textures?

[threestooges]

Nice progress choco. I haven't had much time to mull through the technical implications of the bridge, but it's looking great. However, I notice that the RL pic Nardo posted has a significant anchor for the cables on the short side while this one seems to go right to the track (which would put a lot of stress). I know this is just a progress pic, but I was wondering if you had thought about making such an anchor for the bridge (and if you had had a chance to tinker with the Saltash RUL yet). Hope all is well.
-Matt

[Andreas]

Another question by me: I remember that Jeroni had big problems combining railway and highway on the Tsing Ma Bridge.
Combined road / railway bridges are really rarely to find these days - in Germany I know only one active bridge that is the bridge ove the Mosel

Well, technically, the combined Tsing Ma Bridge actually works fine, but the problem is that the game considers it as congested even if there's virtually no traffic. For some reason (most likely because Maxis simply didn't think of this type of bridge), the traffic simulator can't assign a proper capacity to the bridge, so it's always very low. I guess you are aware of similar problems regarding the road-top mass transit stations (including the new SFBT stations), but at least those allow a high transit switch capacity value, whereas the double-decker bridge doesn't seem to recognize such a setting. I think combined bridges are mainly used at places where a very long span is needed (the bridge between Denmark and Sweden come into my mind), so building more than one bridge would be excessively expensive.

[Nardo69]

Actually - no.

Neither the combined road / rail bridge over the Mosel at Bullay nor for example the road / tramway bridge between Mainz and Wiesbaden over the river Rhine are "long-span".

If it is necessary to cross bigger rivers like e.G. the Rhine AFAIK tramway allways use bridges together with roads.

Even the Galata Bridge between Eminönü and Karaköy in Istanbul is not long span. When I had been in Istanbul in 2003 for the first time there was no tramway there and it was a pure road bridge, if I remember correctly it took only 2 years of construction for prolonging the tramway fro Eminönü over the Galata Bridge to Kabatas.

Todays Galatabridge:


It is a nice walk if you cross the bridge. In the lower floor there are dozens of restaurants and pubs ...

Another example would be the Szabadság híd / Freedom Bridge in Budaest. I am not sure if it is still a combined tramway / road bridge as I haven't been there since mre than 15 years but during my semester at the Technical University of Budapest I crossed that bridge by tram literally daily!



The Szabadság híd / Freedom Bridge in Budapest

What I mean is a short or medium span river bridge, with a span in IRL of not more than 750-850m, within or close to an urban environment for cars and tramway - preferrably as GLR-in-Avenue.

Such a bridge is really missing in SC4.

[Andreas]

I meant that combined Rail (not tram) and Road (or Highway) bridges are probably used only for long spans today, as it would be cheaper to build two separate bridges for rail and road for short spans (i. e. the various road and rail bridges in Frankfurt/Main). For trams, combined bridges are a logical step indeed, as the tram is embedded in the road/avenue anyway. Heavy rail, though, always runs separated from the road network, so combined (double-decker) bridges are only feasible for long spans, where the cost of the bridge is much higher than the one for the approach ramps.

[choco]

last of the HSRP bridges......

[deathtopumpkins]

Wow, that's looking awesome!