Entry no.35 - Spaghetti Junction, vers. 2.0
Spaghetti Junction was originally showcased in entry 13. I remember that entry quite well because it was perhaps the most time consuming thing I've ever made in SC4. The making of the CJ entry itself took something like 4 days. Making diagrams, GIF's and labeling things all take a lot of time. Though it's still only second to entry 15. That one took me about a week to make because of all those diagrams, the actually in game stuff for 15 probably took an hour or two lol. These days it usually takes me a day or days to make an entry on simtropolis, not the entire day but a good part of them. That is capturing all the in game images, screening out photos, making mosaics planning out the progression of an entry and uploading photos then adding a detailed explanations. Today's entry will be fairly light on the dialog since I've already gone into detail about this interchange in the past. It's purpose and use hasn't changed, only it's design.
The actually building of the updated version of this interchange took place over the course of 3-4 week. Mind you I was working on plenty of other things during that time. In total I'd say it took around 20 odd hours to build, which was less about half of the original. Let's just say the disconnector piece was a life saver. That includes several hours of mmp work I did last night 
There's a lot more landscaping that went into this version that the original.
As with Looper Junction, Spaghetti Junction was a major interchange I made last year using NAM 32 to replace Maxis Highway NAM interchanges. But unlike Looper, Spaghetti was made to a higher safety standard from the get-go. Extended merging/acceleration lanes and sweeping curves and extended height transitions were extensively used. However that doesn't mean things can't be improve on further. I was reluctant to update this interchange at first because of all the time I spent on it and since it wasn't really that flawed. The only real flaws, if you can call it that was the use what I call a 'hook ramp', its the one that loops around. While it actually looks kind of cool in game, it's not really realistic in the real world.I also liked how massive and wide the original was, it was quite realistic in size from a real world point of view, yet another reason why I was originally reluctant to rebuild it. But one of the things I like the most about the NAM is the challenge of making things as compact as possible and without sacrificing safety or aesthetics. I think I've definitely managed to do both here. The interchange remains fully accessible, that is vehicles entering the interchange from any of the 4 main highways can connect to all the others.
For detailed mosaic's of the whole interchange scroll to the bottom 
Stats
Levels - 4
All Highways total entrance lanes - 32
Bridge Structures - 9
Total Crossings(time sa highway ramp crosses another) - 33
Tunnels - 0
Ramps - 19
FlexFly Ramps - 14 (4 - 90 degree/10 - 45 degree)
Height Transitions - 18
To start off here's a comparisons between the old and the new versions,
NAM 32 version
NAM 34 version
From the map it looks like I was able to use many of the old ramp, but that was definitely not the case. I had to rebuild practically everything from scratch except from the entry point of the ground level highway 700.
NAM 32 version
NAM 34 version
B & A
On the front page I mentioned that this interchange takes the new NAM to it's limits which it does in terms of compactness. This design can literally not get any smaller without sacrificing the smooth flex-fly curves and gradual height transitions . It's so compact that I couldn't fit flex-height transitions in many areas because you need at least one starter piece next to them to get them to work right. Once I figured out the general design building proceeded smoothly. But there were a few parts that really stumped me for a while. In the spoilers below I will detail the main issues that I had with building the interchange. Fell free to skip over this part if you just want to see the end results 
How to get the diagonal single RHW ramp at level 0 to go under the interchange took the longest to figure out(#1).
And when I finally did figure out a path it wouldn't stay as a single lane RHW and revert back to the regular 2-lan RHW. It's the one spot where I had to use filler piece to complete. But traffic still runs on it so really it's not an issue. It's fragile like glass thou, if a bulldoze a single piece of it, half the interchange will collapse. Found that out the hard way
The neighborhood connection to the was nearly impossible to build from the Eastbound 707. Because you can't link level 1 RHW to the next city over I had to start it off as a level 2 connection and then bring it down to level one before it crosses over the Westbound 700 curving underneath it. That flex transition would not work right for the longest time (#2 above). I can't even remember what trick I used to finally get it to work right. These section (#3 above) had to be level 1 RHW because I was getting this problem(at #4 above);
And no amount of clicking around would correct it. I got the same problem at first when I reversed the levels and put the diagonal single RHW at level 1 and straight RHW at level two but thankfully after 6 or 7 clicks it fixed itself. From here the levels for each ramp were set in stone. Also the height transition (at #5) would of been much longer if it was at level 2 RHW. Then the FAR ramp just past the height transition would be much further away and that would make the interchange either much larger or look less seamless.
The height transition at #6 was also very precarious and took some effort and several rebuilds of the surrounding area to get all the connections to work right.
Now on with the show!
First thing I want to show is the water feature in the middle of the interchange. This is a storm water management pond which has become a fairly common feature in many of the new larger interchanges built around the globe today. Highway interchange take up a lot of space so it only makes sense to try to make use of that space in some useful way.
Image 8 (not including maps)
At first I just made it in the empty space but it looked a little on the small size and then I thought why not extend it underneath the elevated highway itself?
You can also clearly make out where the interchange is 4 levels high next to the pond.
Let's start the tour of the interchange coming from the east (highway 700). From this direction you get a good view of most of the ramps but I'll change up the angle as I work my way down.
10 Heading westbound on the 707 approaching the Cordova Ave bridge
11 Right after the overpass is the first exit on the right side,to the 700 southbound.
12 Mosaic of the area around the Cordova Rd. overpass.
13 There are a couple of local connectors here.
14 On the right side is the local on-ramp from Trafalgar Rd. which merges with the 707 off-ramp to the 700 southbound.
15 On the left side is the off-ramp to Howland Rd. off the 707.
16 Overview of the area
17 Continuing east down the 707 we come up to the on/off ramps to the northbound 704. This is an inside ramp so drivers need to be vigilant to make sure they're going the right way.
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20 Probably the best angle of how these ramps diverge.
Just south of here is the Tauon Hydro corridor. Previously I had the power lines cross the highway but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the way they looked and decided to get rid of them for now to give a clear view of the interchange for this update.
22 At this point the power lines go into and underground hydro vault and continue below the surface
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23
I'm working on an interesting above ground solution... I'm not quite ready to show what I have in mind, but it'll be ready soon
24 And now here's were the spaghetti really begins...
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27
Hope I didn't lose you in there!
28 If you took the off ramps to the 704, whether on purpose or by accident(lol) you'll get to this area, which I like to call 'the fingers'.
29 It was quite tricky getting the RHW to work properly here with height transitions so close to flex fly pieces.
30 Past the fingers are the the on/off ramps for the 704 the design for which hasn't changed from the NAM 32 version. I did move the ramps one tile further south to help smooth out the grade of highway 704 which goes up a steep incline north of here. There's literally no extra space space at all in the interchange, that is for every tile going north/south or east/west a ramp is curving or elevating.
31 The ramps to the 704 from the 707 and vice versa.
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33 Move on further west we get to 'the wave'
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35 Now we're back to the pond seen at the beginning. You could say the four level stack here is the meat of the dish
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37 Past here going west the 707 merges with the 700 as we reach the city limits. In the next city over there is a transfer where the collector/local lanes merge with the express. Several of the ramps which previous extended over into the next city have been eliminated with the rebuild eg. the one on the south side/left use to start in the next city over.
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39 If you took the off ramp to the southbound 700 you come out on these two elevated ramps
40 The portion south of here has not changed from the NAM32 version. Highway 700 here could of been made smaller(oops! I guess wasn't completely correct about the no wasted space part, but that does apply to all the rebuilt sections) but I liked how the highway curved right before going left.
The two ramps, one from the 707 the other from the 704, merge and then you have to option of getting off in downtown LC or continuing further south by merging onto the 700 which will take you to (The City of)Cisco Bay or Dresden
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That concludes the tour,. To close out the entry here's a few traffic flow gifs and of course full interchange mosaics.
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And that concludes this entry. Happy Easter everyone!
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