Charleoix City Highway Reconstruction Act
Greetings,
The second installment in this series covers the Charleoix City Highway Reconstruction Act, which provided 1,000,000 Charleoix Francs (10 Charleoix Francs=1 Simoleon) to shovel-ready projects designed to reconstruct several highways and their interchanges to reduce traffic jams and upgrade outdated sections of highway to modern standards.
Project 1 Charleoix Highway 2/301 Interchange
At the core of the Charleoix highway system are the 3 mainline highways-- highways 1,2, and 3. Charleoix Highway 2 connects Charleoix City and the commercial powerhouse of Luxaco. Charleoix Highway 301 bypasses Highway 1 as it turns East/West to follow the Cross-City Expressway through the capital. The interchange between Charleoix Highway 2 and 301 were originally constructed using a mixing bowl style interchange that also provided direct access for the nearby factories to the highways:
While these mixing bowl style interchanges work well in moderate-traffic environments, due to the development of an industrial zone in the southern suburb of Maple Park, this interchange has become congested in several locations, so the Charleoix Ministry of Transportation elected to rebuild this interchange to a more standard 4-leaf clover configuration.
Initially, eminent domain was used to purchase and then bulldoze many of the surrounding factories, and a temporary power line was constructed to allow transmission of power to continue uninterrupted. To allow for rapid construction of the interchange, detours were set up using the other highways in Charleoix City.
While construction crews began to prepare the site for the construction of new flyovers and ramps, another team under the direction of the Charleoix Ministry of Forestry and Environmental Protection relocated a series of air pollution control devices that were in the way of the new interchange.
The final location of the air-pollution control arrays.
Once that was done, crews began to construct the inner cloves of the interchange. Great care was taken to minimize interruptions to the local roads
Next, a few additional factories and commercial buildings were bulldozed in order to make room for the outer flyovers of the interchange.
The Charleoix Power authority then came in and restored the high-voltage transmission grid to its original configuration, while members of the Office of the Mayor of Charleoix City re-zoned the freed up land so that new factories and commercial buildings could be built. Road construction crews also extended Denis Ave, to provide an additional access point to this industrial area. Once those projects were finished, this area was ready for re-development.
Coming in at 550,000 Francs, this was by far the most expensive project included in the Highway Reconstruction Act.
Project 2 Charleoix Highway 1 and 47 Interchange
Charleoix Highway 47 cuts an East-West course across the northern section of Charleoix City. It provides easy access to the Obulu Champignon International Airport, before traveling into the suburb of Aix en Charleoix. While this interchange is not heavily trafficked, it was built using a highly space consuming, experimental design. Additionally, one segment of a flyover was not properly aligned by the original construction crew, leading to many accidents and reduced efficiency.
While the previous interchange required a complete shut down in order to complete the work, most of the prep work for this interchange was completed while it was still open, and it was shut down in quadrants, in order to minimize the number of affected commuters.
The finished Northern segment of the interchange, which a significant amount of space freed up for commercial development.
While upgrades to the Southern half of the interchange were constrained by the nearby Michaud Charleoix I Memorial Park, the interchange was still able to be rebuilt to modern standards.
Once the interchange was finished, road crews realigned De Paul Boulevard, and built on and off ramps connecting the "Interludes" neighborhood to Highway 1. While the road crews worked, City planners from the Office of the Mayor came in and modified local zoning to better use the newly freed-up space.
Once everything was complete, this project's final budget came in at 200,000 Francs. In the not too distant future, the Ministry of Forestry and Environmental Protection will come in and reforest the innermost segments of the interchange.
Project 3 Charleoix Highway 7 and 2 Interchange
While its not a Mainline Highway, Highway 7 is one of the most important highways in Charleoix. It connects the seaport at Port Champlain in the Northwest to the densely settled Champignon River Valley (Northern Suburbs of Charleoix City), Charleoix City, and the Southeastern-most communities of Charleoix. Due to the number of commuters and freight trucks using it on a daily basis, the Southern segment of Highway 7 in Charleoix City has become congested, necessitating that it is widened from 6 to 8 lanes. 
Luckily, the highway was built for modular widening, so minimal sitework was required to widened the highway
Once widening was completed, 2 of the on/off ramps needed to be reconnected to Highway 7.
While the widening project was finished in Charleoix City, crews were also working on widening Charleoix Highway 7 in the neighboring suburb of Upper Gauley.
Before widening
Reconstruction of the Northernmost onramp to Highway 7 North in Upper Gauley
Final product.
Once all work was completed, this project cost 150,000 Francs
Project 4- Feasibility Study of Reconstruction of Priority Corridors A,B,C
The final tranche of funding from this Act went towards feasibility studies for 3 heavily congested, non-freeway corridors that carried traffic entirely within the city. Unfortunately upgrading any of those corridors would have required displacing thousands (if not tens of thousands) from their homes. Options for the expansion of mass transit are being explored, but because that is outside the scope of this act, those projects could not be completed.
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