Entry no.13 - Spaghetti Junction
This entry is divided up into 7 sections;
- Mosaics
- Close-ups
- Before & Afters
- General Info
- Real World Comparisons
- User Guide
- Interchange-wide Pano's
I've merged the previous entry with this one, its better having it all together in one entry.
Without further delay, here she is;
The core section
Stats
Highway entrance lanes - 24 (3rd of 9)
Highway lanes central section - 29 (3rd of 9)
Bridge Structures - 10 (2nd of 9)
Total Crossings(time a highway ramp crosses another) - 30 (2nd of 9)
Tunnels - 1 (T5th of 9)
Ramps - 25 (3rd of 9)
FlexFly Ramps - 13 (1st of 9) - 9 elevated/4 ground
Height Transitions - 23 (2nd of 9)
Mosaic's
Hope you know where you going...
For assistance, please refer to the user guide 
Closeup's
The WB 707 Cordova Rd. access ramp is the only tunnel in the interchange adding the otherwise impossible 4th level
Height transition...? What height transition?
The Local to Express transfer
Night time
The "Rake Hand" ramps
Before & Afters
Highway 700 through downtown LC and the rail overpasses
location of the old Interchange
location of the new interchange;
Evermore section(the Western approach);
sometimes faster is better when it comes to seeing how different things are...
General Information
Spaghetti Junction is one of the 3 largest of the 9 major interchanges currently built in the region. When fully built out the region will have 14 major interchanges. The construction was complicated be several factors.
It's split between two cities
Lindin City(LC for short) with a pop of 30,000 is the eastern city, Evermore a bedroom community of 8,000 is the western city. The original interchange was located solely in Lindin City was built very close to the border of its western neighbor Evermore. I tried to build the RHW replacement within LC, but it quickly became apparent that wouldn't be possible.
Made to be fully accessible
Meaning there is a ramp for to possible route. At first I wasn't going to connect the 700 with the 704 since they travel relatively the same direction. But later on I changed the planned alinement of the 704 and added those ramps, greatly increasing the size of the interchange.
A rail line(s) cut across a portion of it
Originally it was just one rail line which carried two rail corridors - the line splits shortly after it cross the highway. However the lines were separated as part of a project to increase rail capacity. This limited the available space for ramps and transition pieces on the southern approach.
.
Built on uneven terrain
The area that the interchange ended up being built on was quite uneven. It was flattened out which resulted in two different levels. Since I use the extended height transition pieces wherever possible, this extended the length of the interchange a fair bit east to west.
Highway 700 alinement
Rather then simply going east-west, I wanted highway 700 to instead curve from the west to the south. A wide 2 lane curve was used for the 700 westbound which resulted in splitting highway 707. A separate lane/ramp had to be made for the local exit off the 700 southbound since the two overhead ramps merge with the 700 south of this location - Item A in the southern approach section.
Real World Comparisons
How this interchange stacks up to a couple of IRL spaghetti junctions
The maps are all on the same scale, a little over 2 km across. First thing that becomes apparent is just how wide mapart makes their roads, in the case of cities streets, they are twice as wide or more! In fairness to them, maps would probably be unreadable if they went any smaller. Where as even though my maps are made in their likeness, all roads & highways are depicted in there actual size, which I think works just fine when viewing the map on a computer where you can easily zoom in or out.
User Guide
western approach, highway 700/707;
The combined 700/707 highway enters the interchange limits as an 8 laned RHW,
A) The Eastbound(EB) 700/707 combined highway splits apart early on in this direction interchange.
For the 707 drivers must stay on the left, for the 700 stay to the right.
B) Drivers wanting to exit onto Kaiser St., the only highway interchange in Evermore, must stay to the left on the highway 707 alinement to access the off ramp to Kaiser St.
C) On ramp from Trafalgar Rd. to the WB 700/707
D) On ramp from Kaiser St. to the EB 707
E) On ramp from Kaiser St. to the SB 700
Ideally I would of only used one ramp and spit them at the bottom but aside from there being no peice piece that could do that in such a small space I don't approve of the use of dangerous inside onramps(with no merging lane) onto highways 
F) Off ramp from NB 700 local/SB 704/WB 707 to Kaiser St.
G) Transfer from NB 700 local/SB 704 to WB 700/700
Rail info:
1 - Fastraxx ME(Middle East) line
2 - Fastraxx L(Loop) line
3 - Fastraxx Evermore Station - all day service on the - L line only
4 - Yashino(Rail) Juction - service connection between the ME & L lines
The ME & L lines change sides just west of here. This was necessary as their rerouted was changed to increase system capcity.
http://https://i.imgur.com/Gd4iGNx.png"/>
Split section
Evermore border:
A) These lanes carry traffic from downtown LC and from the SB 704. Keeping right at the ramp takes you through the transfer and onto the WB 700/707 to downtown Pretoria. Stay left takes you onto the off ramp to Kasier St., the only interchange in the city of Evermore.
B) Off ramp from WB 707 to Kaiser St.
C) Off ramp from SB 700 to downtown LC. This is the only off ramp off the 700 in LC, don't miss it or you'll end up in Cisco Bay.
D) This overpass also happens to be Kasier St. which does a little loop in Evermore.
LC border:
Rather straight forward seeing as how its the opposite of Evermore. As you can see, this is where highway 700 takes its dramatic turn to the south. Highway 707 had to be split apart because of the curve for the WB 700.
Southern approach, highway 700:
Highway 700 snakes its way through downtown LC, a moderately sized city, however there are no ramps onto or off of the express section of the highway. Instead a express-local aka express-collector system is used. For northbound traffic there is and off ramp into downtown LC further south and an on ramp from downtown LC to the SB 700. However those ramps are considered to be a separate interchange from Spaghetti Junction, the limits of which begin at H at which point highway 700 is a 6 lane RHW.
A) Continuation of the off ramp to downtown LC from the EB 700/707 which started in Evermore. Could not place this ramp any closer because of the position of ramps B&C.
B) Ramp from the SB 704 to the SB 700
C) Ramp from the WB 707 to the SB 700
D) Highway 700 SB lanes
E) Highway 700 WB lanes
F) Highway 700 local(collector) lanes, probably the single most important access road in the entire interchange, see item H.
G) Here traffic from both the 704 & 707 can access either downtown LC or continue onto the 700. Stay/switch over to the right to access the off ramp to the West Way and downtown LC. Stay/switch over to the left to continue onto the SB 700. Which will then take you to Cisco Bay over the Skybridge as seen in entry 10
H) Where Spaghetti junction starts. Traffic wanting to continue to downtown Pretoria stays to the left, hence why there are two lanes allocated to the busier route. Staying to the right and taking the transfer onto the local/collector lanes will lead to a myriad of possibility - in fact it can take you to every possible route in the interchange. From here WB 700 traffic(the highway is north bound at this spot but will soon curve to the west) can access highway 704, 707, Kasier St. in Evermore and even return back to the WB 700 via the transfer in Evermore. But basically if you want to go anywhere else than downtown Pretoria you have to take this ramp otherwise the next off ramp and chance to turn around is about 3.5km away.
J) Another reason why the collector lanes had to be fully accessible, including returning back onto the WB 700 is because local traffic from downtown LC enters the freeway system here as well.
Original concept for connecting ramps A,B,C:
Aside from being a little too messy and consuming more space then the current set up, I really didn't like how that one ramp went from 1 lane to 2 then back to 1 just to get by the rail lines so I searched for an alternate solution which resulted in the current configuration.
Rail info:
1 - Fastraxx ME(Middle East) line
2 - Fastraxx L(Loop) line
4 - Fastraxx LC Station - all day service on the L line, peak service on the ME line, transfer point between lines, long distance Hallmark trains stop 12 times a day using the ME line.
5 - Point where the two commuter lines diverge. The ME line continues west to Gravnhurst and points beyond while the L line curves south to the city of Cisco Bay.
3 - Highway 700 Rail overpass
Originally the L & ME lines combined into one line where they now diverge and the commuter train station was located on top of the highway, but the station had to be removed to make space for the interchange.
Post rebuild
looking east
Eastern approach, highway 707;
A) Ramp from WB 707 to NB 704
B) Ramp from SB 704 to EB 707
C) Off ramp from WB 707 to Howland Rd.
Originated out of a desire to put the excessive inside space between the EB & WB lanes to good use. Also serves as a secondary access point to downtown LC.
D) On ramp from Trafalgar Rd. to NB 704
Definitely the least safest ramp in the interchange only 3 spaces of merging room - speed is restricted to 50kph on this ramp. Not the best looking either, but there is no fractionally angled ramp with inside access. On top of that the ramp is barely used. The eastern approach would probably look better without it but I can't bring myself to get rid of it since I like the idea of having some local access to the interchange.
E) Off ramp from SB 704 to Howland Rd.
F) Ramp from NB 700 to EB 707
G) 707 EB lanes
H) Ramp from WB 707 to SB 700
I) 707 WB lanes
Northern approach, highway 704;
From right to left (west to east)
- Ramp from SB 704 to WB 700/707
- Ramp from SB 704 to SB 700
- Ramp from SB 704 to EB 707
- Ramp from WB 707 to NB 704
- Ramp from NB 700 to NB 704
- Ramp from EB 707 to NB 704
The NB 700 to NB 704 ramp is the only one which doesn't utilize an extended or on slope height transition in the interchange, but I found that it actually looks better with the shorter transition piece. Trafalgar Rd. runs in between the ramps.
And saving the best for last...
Interchange-Wide Pano's
looking west
looking east
looking south
looking north
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11
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