Bridge lengths

[deanva 70]

Is there a maximum length across a river any highway or railroad bridge can be? Also can a bridge be built across something like a deep canyon or valley?

[Propfam 2,286]

6 hours ago, deanva said:

Is there a maximum length across a river any highway or railroad bridge can be?

As long as there are 2 sufficiently-sized higher-level areas on the side of the area to be bridged. 3-5 tiles should be enough for default settings. Of course, if you set the level of the bridge to be high, you need larger areas.

6 hours ago, deanva said:

Also can a bridge be built across something like a deep canyon or valley?

Yes, but it's very difficult in Maxis settings of slope. If you want to build it relatively easy, use a kind of slope mods. One of those slope mods is Ennedi Slope Mod that I personally use. I don't know much about other slope mods behavior but there are some slope mods that basically just a slope mod: no road building speed up, no enhancement to bridge building, etc. Just smoother slope for roads, avenue, etc.

Hope this helps. Thanks.

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

Without using any special mods, the game does generally expect a bridge to cross water before it will let it be built, but otherwise they should be fine no matter how deep or wide a canyon is.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

21 hours ago, deanva said:

Is there a maximum length across a river any highway or railroad bridge can be? Also can a bridge be built across something like a deep canyon or valley?

A bridge can span an entire region as long as you have 4 aligned squares on each tile border. Of course, if you have no destinations on each end, it's just decoration. As for spanning canyons or most dry land, there is a rain tool and JenX's Poseidon set on the LEX. Both a bit tricky, so I'd practice first.

[rsc204 21,804]

To add to what others have said, generally speaking the game doesn't really mind how long or deep your bridges get. In fact, if you look at the style of bridges Maxis included, I don't think they really intended for bridges over shallow water much. Many only look right when they are over a very high edge.

However, each bridge has properties that can dictate a particular size (Min and Max), along with defining when pieces or patterns repeat. Due to all these factors, it never hurts to try a few different bridges out in a given situation to find what works best visually.

On 10/10/2020 at 3:49 AM, chfzdn said:

Yes, but it's very difficult in Maxis settings of slope. If you want to build it relatively easy, use a kind of slope mods.

I would have to disagree with you there, for the most part a custom slope mod makes bridge building, like the roads themselves, more restrictive not less. Although it certainly is possible to mod one to work the other way, it's not something common for sure.

[Propfam 2,286]

8 hours ago, rsc204 said:

I would have to disagree with you there, for the most part a custom slope mod makes bridge building, like the roads themselves, more restrictive not less. Although it certainly is possible to mod one to work the other way, it's not something common for sure.

In terms of slope flexibility, yes. But, I use Ennedi Slope Mod with bridge parameter tuned in a way that building bridges in non-water area easy. I don't mean that's nearly impossible with Maxis one.

Hopes this clarifies. Thanks.