Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig)

[nycsc4 5,250]

holy Jesus!!! that is amazing, i can't wait till this comes out!!

[aldara6166 109]

Originally posted by: Don Miguel Great job so far. However, if the tunnel will act as a subway, will that mean that buses can't go through either?quote>

 

As with all the other Something-to-subway converters on the STEX, to get the "traffic" to simulate going underground all traffic is converted to subway...so, theoretically while a bus can use the real Boston underground system, it will be converted to subway traffic...the "no truck traffic" signs are for realism sake...

Hope that helps... 

[kant01 5]

this is a really fantastic project - I am just stunned. I wish I had seen it before.

After having lived in Boston for several years and driven through the tunnels and over the bridge, I must say that you have captured the whole thing beautifully! I have tried to play from time to time on a to-scale Boston map but a) I don't think any of the ones available are actually to scale and b) Boston is such a hard city to play in SC because the roads are all over the place!

In any case, I am holding my breath waiting for this. Thank you!

[blahdy 21]

Thanks all ;-)

As of today, the bridge is now 80% complete with additional defacts and sign installations completed.  Lane marking/painting work on the road surface is about to begin anytime now.

And to further take away more of your breath in this breath-taking project, just last week (6/5/06), the I-93 tunnel system in Boston has finally been given its official name: Thomas "Tip" P. O'Neill Tunnel.  Signs have been unveilled few days following the ceremony.

The tunnels have been temporarily named as Liberty Tunnel for the past 1.5-2 years to commemorate the sacrifice made by soldiers during wartime, until a more permanent name can be debated in politics. 

After 2 years of political controversey in finding appropriate names for the two major tunnel systems (the third tunnel being already named after Ted Williams), a permanent name has now been dedicated on June 5th to a former US D-MA house speaker (Thomas "Tip" P. O'Neill) who fought very hard in the 80's to request the initial amount of $2.8 billion in federal funding to kick off the Big Dig project.  Without his hard work, the project would never have become a reality, and many have called Big Dig, "never going to happen" back in the 80s -- which now we all know is not true.

Local news regarding this dedicated ceremony is at: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/newsarchive/9323928/detail.html

Since the event has occurred before the BAT project has been completed, we're now updating the model as appropriate in gmax to reflect the reality.  A wall on tunnel's boat section now bears Tip O'Neill sign as it is installed in the real world version:

The Boston Metro Highway System (official logo of the Big Dig tunnels) logo:

Speed limit signs installed on final approach into the tunnel:

[lonhey 0]

I like it. Unfortunately, the Tip O'Neill sign is above the tunnel, not to the left of it. Otherwise, this looks amazing!

[blahdy 21]

Originally posted by: lonhey I like it. Unfortunately, the Tip O'Neill sign is above the tunnel, not to the left of it. Otherwise, this looks amazing!quote>

Nope.

The sign is above the tunnel head on Southern/Dewey Square approach zone at the South Bay Interchange.

The sign is on the tunnel boat wall section on Northern/Zakim/Leverett Circle approach zone.

Believe me, I actually go and check the details before putting them in the model   thanks for the comments though!

[simzebu 20]

OOOOO! Very VERY nice!

[cowkilla 12]

nice!

[blahdy 21]

Okay, gmax decided it's going to break half of all the textures, so it took a while to clean up one hell of a mess.

Now, without further interruption...

Only two more signs just need to be completed (their content need to be customized to better match the real one), as we prepare to start the next phase.  They are encircled in red below:

The completed tunnel boat section:

Low quality renderings of the completed tunnel-boat section:

[sloppet 3]

every time i come here i'm just speechless... man, this is breathtaking! Just awesome!

[1ajs 49]

amazed at the realisym that bridge would make a sweet level in a fps game

[hamsterTK 93]

I dont know if i like having any text on there. If you were making a boston recreation cj it might be fine, but for everyone else its a bit awkward having massachussets plastered on there.

[lrfox 2]

Yeah, Blahdy, i think it's OK. i mean maybe next time a little more attention to detail or someting. i was driving on i-93 the other day, and i saw a couple of oil stains on the concrete that you CLEARLY have overlooked. all in all i'm really disappointed in this project.

lol, nah, this is incredible. i cant wait to use this in game. i'm getting a new computer in a few months, and i think you may have inspired me to get into BAT when i get the machine so i can start re-creating boston buildings. keep it up, looks awesome

[Andreas Roth 629]

Originally posted by: hamsterTK I dont know if i like having any text on there. If you were making a boston recreation cj it might be fine, but for everyone else its a bit awkward having massachussets plastered on there.quote>

 

Well, the project is to create an exact copy of a Boston landmark, and blahdy surely does a great job on it. I agree with you that it will be hard to use it anywere else than in a Boston city journal, but that counts for virtually any landmark that has been included in the game or created by a BATter. Anyway, the attention to detail is simply astounding, and from a viewpoint of recreating a real-life structure in the game, this project is on the same level as rubik3's World Trade Center project, which I still consider as one of the best things that has been done with the BAT so far.

[aldara6166 109]

Originally posted by: Andreas RothWell, the project is to create an exact copy of a Boston landmark, and blahdy surely does a great job on it. I agree with you that it will be hard to use it anywere else than in a Boston city journal, but that counts for virtually any landmark that has been included in the game or created by a BATter. Anyway, the attention to detail is simply astounding, and from a viewpoint of recreating a real-life structure in the game, this project is on the same level as rubik3's World Trade Center project, which I still consider as one of the best things that has been done with the BAT so far.quote>

 

Yeah, but just because it has a name in the tunnel entrance doesn't mean it can't be incorporated in to a non-Boston CJ...or the name can be photoshopped out... 

[blahdy 21]

hehe thanks everybody ;-)

lrfox: awesome man, would love to see more boston stuff BATted !

heh, i do have a list of "inaccuracies" for this project, but many of them are purposefully ignored as they are little enough detail to not really matter in SC4 in-game views.  They are also by the way, putting up fences on top of the tunnel boat section.  I'm debating whether to add that or not, may be it's just too much work and not worth it, given that the fence is still under construction and not finished at this time..

hamstertk: yea, well.. it's a landmark.  just like jeronij's Tsing Ma bridge (except this one has much lesser attention because it's new ;-) )  and various other great landmarks made by NDEX, BSC, etc.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority text is small that I'm not sure if it will even be clearly visible in SC4, so that's probably fine to address some of your concerns

adreas roth:  Thanks   i'm glad to hear this project is as astounishing as some of the most prestigious ones under work here in simtropolis.

By the way for those who are wondering, this model currently has 665,000+ polygons so far.  i tried loading this gmax model on my old 1.6ghz laptop, and it's sooo slow on it i can't even move an object with my mouse heheh.

[simzebu 20]

I think this project is the number one reason that it's GOOD SC4 doesn't have full 3d. My little POS would probably jump out of the room and run screaming into the river.

And AMAZING job, by the way.

[cooli 0]

very gooooooooooooooooood work

[blahdy 21]

With signs mostly done, lane marking/painting work is now under way at the tunnel transition area:

Bird's eye view:

One of the two remaining sign-set is now completed.  As you can also see, the lane traffic control lights are exactly fitting with the lane markings themselves.  The entire bridge was created with proper measurements to ensure that all lane markings will exactly terminate to their right places as they interface with SC4 elevated highway piece.

Bird's eye view picture 2:  As you can see, the tunnel entrance consists of 11 total lanes.  This is one of the widest tunnel entrances in North America:

As the project is approaching completion, it's time to start thinking about how we are going to night-light this thing... for appetizer purpose, real night time picture is below (courtesy of pbase.com members).  The bridge in real-life alternates night lighting of its towers and cabling each day, they also have special alternating light set for independence day (7/4), although i'm not sure if any specific lighting plans have been published yet.

[shasta 1]

First off, let me say that this is shaping up to be a great addition to Sim City. I can't wait to try working with it! However, I have one question: If these end pieces convert the road traffic into subway (for the sake of having tunnels) then wouldn't that cause problems if someone has an extensive subway network (like in many of my cities)?

[blahdy 21]

Originally posted by: shasta First off, let me say that this is shaping up to be a great addition to Sim City. I can't wait to try working with it! However, I have one question: If these end pieces convert the road traffic into subway (for the sake of having tunnels) then wouldn't that cause problems if someone has an extensive subway network (like in many of my cities)?quote>

Thanks for your interest and comment

With respect to your question, unfortunately that is true yes.  It's one of the sad limits of the game which we can't really get around with.

The only workaround we can suggest at this point is to run subway networks around the underground highway so that they do not intersect.  You can also bring the underground highway back up to ground level using the underground-to-groundHW transition lot, run the subway beneath that, then put the highway back underground.

Rhetorically speaking, this is not a huge problem for city journals that are focused in being realistic in my opinion.  This whole project is designed to be used in key downtown center area of your city, saving valuable real-estate and allowing you to put more amenities in your downtown such as parks instead of ugly looking elevated highway segments.  Because most realistic downtowns are relatively small spans (i.e. 1.2 miles stretch in case of Boston), you won't have a lot of overrunning problems with subway networks, as not a lot of them will cross it, or can be rerouted fairly easily. 

It will be realistically very expensive to have a long underground highway in densed populated city, so it's not really recommended that you make a long highway out of the Big Dig lots  for two reasons: 1. trucks and buses cannot cross naturally (freight raffic won't even work), 2. the longer your underground highway is, the more subway-overlaps you will have.  Remember, the real Big Dig project ended up costing $14.6 billion dollars.  It's not a cheap solution to put a highway underground in a dense downtown ;P

[shasta 1]

Okay, thanks for clearing that up for me. Maybe one day someone will figure out how to do the tunnels without converting to subway. Ehile I'm thinking about it, I have another question:

Originally posted by: blahdy

quote>

I get the idea that the lanes on the far left exit to city streets at the end of the bridge next to the elevated highway. But on the end with the tunnel, where do those lanes come from in the first place? You'll have to forgive me, I've never been to Boston and therefore have never driven on this stretch of freeway.

[blahdy 21]

No worries

I've posted a picture-diagram below to answer your question.

Each encircled red area is a SC4 lot tile that will have subway "station" (converter rather...) on that tile.  Then the rest is pretty self-explanatory.  Two subway lots for your main highway, another one for auxilary cantilevered 2-lane road going one direction, and another for Leverett Circle tunneled on-ramp. going in one direction.

[Ryan B 35]

Dude. That's not just good. That's sick. That is seriously sick.

Is there a possibility of you doing other real-world locations? I'm telling you, the NAM team could really use you.

[blahdy 21]

hehe yea.

I have interest (hobby) after modern public infrastructures, such as the new I-93 tunnel highway systems in Boston and ports, etc. There are other new projects going on that are using modern technologies as listed on Federal Highway Administration's various web sites. I'll probably do another modelling project like this for different locations, dependent upon how much interest i have in their architecture and design

[blahdy 21]

Last remaining sign done!  As of now, all signs on the model are completed 100%.

Another view of the last completed sign:

There have been a couple of last minute corrections in the tunnel transition area.  The main highway tunnel entrance is now fully completed, assuming we don't find any more oddities/bugs.

Real-life picture copyright: newrecruit.org

Lane-painting work is continuing through the bridge:

Two awesome looking shots:

[SHADD0W09 2]

nice work keep it up if you want to test that bridge those towers look like the milau bridge the talest bridge in the world here is the link

http://bridgepros.com/projects/Millau_Viaduct/

ps sorry for the edit

[hamsterTK 93]

lol. i think lots of bridges are just like that. i think the bay bridge in Aomori, Japan is practically identical(it doesnt have those outer hanging lanes though and its not part of a underground freeway system)

[mightygoose 92]

cool work mate

[hamsterTK 93]

just curious, how wide is the bridge? are there overhanging water pieces big enough to work for this? it would be a bit strange to have this thing going over land.