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Hi everyone- After a nearly 4-month hiatus, Tarkusian Cities is back in the thick of construction season. I have a few capital improvement projects all around Chemeketa to showcase, which, for the first time in awhile, will entail visiting the south side of town. I've replied to everyone who commented on the previous update on the end of that update's comments section--thank you all for the support! First off, a current region map, to reacquaint yourself with Chemeketa. (Trying out a new color scheme here, too.) Current region map: [link] Highway 36/Sorenson Street Project PROJECT OVERVIEW ORDOT has identified that the segment of Highway 36 between downtown Chemeketa and the interchange with Highway 15 as a viable candidate for capital improvements. Among these improvements, one particular project was shortlisted for construction, the interchange with Sorenson Street. Sorenson Street is a north-south arterial maintained by the City of Chemeketa, which provides access to several major industrial areas, and has long been a source of congestion. While city public works projects have noticeably improved the road well to the north of the project area, the portions of Sorenson Street in the vicinity of the existing interchange with Highway 36 is a 2-lane roadway with a 30mph speed limit, and has not seen much improvement since it was a semi-rural road on the outskirts of town. As a result, it suffers significant congestion, and operates at LOS D at most hours, dropping to LOS F at the interchange and immediately south during peak hours. As part of the project, ORDOT will be modernizing and re-aligning Sorenson Street, widening the roadway to include 4 travel lanes, from just south of the interchange, to 5th Avenue NE. The City of Chemeketa will be widening and re-aligning Sorenson between 5th and 16th Avenues NE in coordination with the interchange redesign. The illustration below gives a rough outline of the improvements planned for this project. PRE-CONSTRUCTION CONDITIONS This is where the ramps to and from Highway 36 eastbound intersect Sorenson Street (facing north). Here is a full overview of the interchange area, with earth moving commencing on the new alignment of Sorenson Street (facing north). This is an overview of the area surrounding the intersection of Sorenson with 5th Ave NE (facing north). As evidenced by the outlines of preliminary preparations for construction, a number of structures will need to be demolished to make way for the new roadway. This is at the north end of the city's improvement project, at the intersection of Sorenson with 16th Ave NE (facing north). The segment north of 16th has already been widened to 4 lanes, and this project will widen the segment to the south to match. DURING CONSTRUCTION Another look, a little farther south, with some preliminary construction preparations underway (facing north). Sorenson will be realigned slightly toward the west, with more slight curvature. Demolition of structures near the interchange has commenced (facing north): Just north of 5th Ave (facing north): Farther north, near the existing curve (facing north): This small pocket of residential will not be directly connected into the new alignment Sorenson Street, and will instead be accessed by a segment of the old alignment, which will be retained for local access purposes (facing north). Closer to 16th Ave (facing north) A portion of the new alignment has been constructed, and 9th Place NE has been extended to it (facing north). This extension will provide access to the portion of the old alignment that will be retained for local access, and will minimize disruption during construction staging. The collector roadway just to the north (Meander Drive NE) will also be realigned, with its intersection with Sorenson being moved roughly 300 feet north (facing north). This is back at the new 5th and Sorenson intersection (facing north). You can see the old intersection just to the right. That does it for this installment of Tarkusian Cities. Next update, we'll be delving more into the reconstruction of the interchange itself. Hope you enjoyed it! -Tarkus

All: I see you've generally liked the airport, I'm so glad to hear this. This has been my first two-city tiles airport (in the next post I'll try to show an overview where you'll see that. Its construction from its inception to the final details took around 15 hours more or less (5 hours during 3 days) excluding the photoedition I had to do to solve some issues... Thank you all for your comments!! Fox, Benedict, k50, IL., Gugu3, Numbers, Evillions, SC4L0ver: I personally hate how in-game monorail looks. It can't overhang on lots and its 45-degree-turns make me really sick. I always liked how those ATEX tubes look and they've been for a long time in my Landmarks menu waiting for their opportunity. My usual building style doesn't allow me to use them, but in Al-Qurayyah, Petrodollars make possible almost everything; so I followed that Dubai catchphrase "Why not?" MilitantRadical: I can't really remember where I downloaded this set, it was in one of those confusing Japanese sites. It must be probably down these days, but you can try looking for it in the sites listed here [link]. NMUSpidey: Yeah, my final thought about it was "it doesn't look that impressive" but guess it is OK for such a tiny place... BTW, congrats on your MOTM! Schulmanator: A G-R-E-A-T C-O-M-M-E-N-T. Adooxx: Here you are! SimCoug: Before the "invention" of MMPs, all airports looked a bit dead, except the ones whose creator knew how to use the LE. Now, even the laziest player like me can build a busy airport with the marvels the SCAG creates. dubaidude303: Thanks! Simul8ter8: I'm amazed to see you amazed by my CJ! Hazani Pratama: The beautiful stuff is about to come! 100000....: I was actually inspired by the expansion project of Al Maktoum Intl Airport (DWC) in Dubai [link]. Anyways, I have no doubt that it's designers were inspired by ATL at some point... Mithrik: The biggest? No way, have you seen Jorge_Carrillo's work at the Show Us Your Airports thread? He does it BIG! Megaopolisbuilder34: Thank you! MayorHerzog: Unemwhat? I envision a vibrant nightlife here, but it's hard for me to show it in SC4... I'll come up with something eventually, I guess. Woke up early that morning. I was jet-lagged and I was nervous, working for AQPOC when you're a chemical engineer, is something big, some dream of this since middle school. And I was there, having my breakfast in one of the several restaurants in the Princess Hotel. The AQPOC (PetroQurayyah) HQ is just a block down the street, there's no problem on going there walking. I walked all the way looking up, that tower is a structure that deserves to be watched for a while. PetroQurayyah has it's global headquarters in a building called Al Burj ("The Tower" in English), which is not simply a building. It is the tallest building on Earth, measuring 1030 m from its base to the top of the spire; only available to a company where money is not a problem like PetroQurayyah. The AirportLink and Al Burj are the real pride of Al-Qurayyah, the structures that placed that tiny emirate into the global scenario. Al Burj is, for some, the 8th Wonder of the World and in that moment, I understood why. A revolutionary construction method was used to build the foundations of this building. Sand was dug until reaching the rock basement underground, and foundations were built on it. This makes Al Burj boast of 10 underground floors of parking space and 3 gigantic mass dampers to prevent seismic damages in case of earthquake. I nearly broke my neck staring at the top before entering the building, took some pics of it with my iPhone. And then, I came into that Wonder of the World. I was directed to one of the offices in the 84th floor, seems that all that area belongs to the Human Resources department, which must be an administrative monster inside a monstruous company. The elevators took me to the 84th floor faster than the elevator of your hometown hospital takes you to the 3rd floor. The interview was plain spectacular. They recieved me as I was a kind of Messiah (which I'm not), gave all the practical info I had to know to begin living there, the keys of my apartment and my corporate car, contracts, computer, computer keys, instructions, blah, blah, blah; everything compiled in a portfolio and a computer bag. Finally, I was given like an insight of the company I'd begin to work with tomorrow. All production, revenues, profits and investments figures seemed to be like from another world to me. I see that everything is larger and faster in Al-Qurayyah. I was taken into a brief tour on the company, this was the less impressive part, after all. Golf oil rig. Juggernaut oil rig. AQPOC crude oil seaport, South Beach. Al-Qurayyah University of Oil and Gas. The interview finished and I took the elevator down to the street level in panic. This seemed to be a much more serious business than I expected. Everything I had seen on the Internet or read about PetroQurayyah was simply not enough. I was about to work for the company that literally fuels a nation and fuels the world; were things happen. There was no more time for thinking, I took a yellow taxicab at the door and gave the driver the address I had been given some minutes ago. He seemed to be from Pakistan or perhaps Sri Lanka; he said nothing during the whole trip, he directly drove the taxi into Sheikh Rahim bin Al Attiyah Road and headed north. Several meters below us, an AirportLink train should be travelling at a speed around 250 km/h, everyday stuff here. We went into the collector lanes of Al Attiyah Road in a few minutes, finally, I was taken to a tall waterfront estate, surrounded by single-family houses. My apartment seemed to be placed in the Sorrento 1 tower, 24th floor; according with the address. The apartment interior was more luxurious than any other five-star hotel I had ever been before (except Princess Hotel), with all the necessary stuff to have a humble way of life: 50" LED TV, a huge sofa, minimalistic furniture, an also huge but empty bridge, a fully-equipped kitchen, a king-size bed, an iHome, a luminous studio full of shelves, a bathroom large as a dance club, shower, jacuzzi... If they gave me all that for free, it's because they expected some return with my work. I had to sit down for a while before attacking my nearly-infinite to-do list.

Welcome to a Bonus Update! You can consider today's update "Update 4.5" - if you will. It is not a complete update, however it will be one everyone is interested in for sure. Today I am going to show you various Regional views of Holt District! Woo - hope you're excited! And I sincerely hope these don't disappoint you and meet or exceed your expectations. Let's get on with the show! Regional View 1 - General Region View This shot shows you the un-altered view of Holt District in its entirety. Click for full resolution! The next regional view we're going to have a look at is the above regional view - with municipality names added. This way, you always know where we are when I say "Today, we're in City/Town/Township XYZ" Click for full resolution! Oh no, we aren't done yet! In this second last regional view for today we see an "satallite" view of Holt District - we are looking directly down at Holt District. Click for full resolution! And for out last regional view, a night-time regional view of the populated area of Holt District. This one I am particularly fond of. And now... a teaser of our next update. That's all for today, folks! I sincerely hope the regional views didn't disappoint - and that you are looking forward to our next update. As always, don't forget to follow me on twitter, visit the HD streetmap and website. Replies will be done at the next update.

Replies: ggamgus: Thank you!!! TowerDude: In Spain you can find those huge empty fields too! grstudios: Thank you!!! Actually, fields and machines (and roads, railroads, etc.) are lotted, and I use the props in LE instead of the MMP versions. TekindusT: Thank you!!! Very nice poem! Actually, my hometown is in the Castilla region, and when we drive somewhere out of town, this boring landscape is what we see Hazani Pratama: Thanks!! ThomasSimpson: Thank you!! I was inspired a bit on your last Lessito updates halenbyname: Thank you!! aparrot7: Thank you!! dubaidude303: Thank you!! Markus J: Thank you!! testuser1234: It was my first rural scene but thanks for your advice! Now we are again in Vistalegre. So we go down the Vía Imperial from the Imperial Square (Remember it?) to reach the Plaza 18 de Marzo (March 18th square) where the Parliament is. March 18th 1521 was the day the first colonies were discovered by the Empire, and were ruled by the country until their independance in the XIXth century (still some archipelagos belong to the Empire nowadays). But before arriving, a little pic. Now we arrived, and we reach this traffic chaos roundabout in one side of the square... Here is the Congress building, built in 1850, after the first Constitution, and it hosts one of the two Chambers of the New Iberian Parliament. The monument in the middle of the square was erected in 1871, in the 350th anniversary of the discovery of the colonies. In the '70s, two big buildings were built in the square. One of them is the headquarters of the Banco de Comercio de Nueva Iberia. The other one is the Petrasa Tower, built in 1978, headquarters of the national petrol company (now private since mid '90s). The building, with its 182 metres, has been the tallest in Vistalegre until the 2000s, when the new CBD was developping. Loved and hated at the same time, it's now one of the most important landmarks in Vistalegre. An overview of the square... And a last pic from the Petrasa tower. Hope you liked today's update!!!

Somewhere in near Tokyo, Japan, resides a small yet bustling city; Ido. Though most of its residents work near Tokyo, more businesses are steadily alluring its own residents. In the outskirts of Ido resides the poorer residents, most of them work in either local shops or farms. Only a few people can afford in these houses as these cost around ten million yen. Despite this pricing, the area's education is ranked the lowest in the prefecture. Therefore, only old citizens live here.

Welcome back to the Surf Coast. This time we're at Lorne, a fun holiday destination for the whole family. The beaches are clean and safe with life guards and shark spotting planes flying over regularly. No expence has been spared redeveloping the town, with a marina, theme park and a water park. Lorne is trying to steal some of the tourist market from the Gold Coast. Lorne also offers bungee jumping and white water rafting for those looking for thrills. And caravan park for the grey nomad. Or just go for a drive. Lorne before the redevelopment. The real Surf Coast.

In today's posting, we continue our trek south along the Delaware Bayshore. Today's focus is on western Middle Township, in particular, the town of Dias Creek and Cook's and Kimble's Beach . NJ 47 runs north to south through Dias Creek, following the track of the colonial stagecoach route. In the late 1700s and early 1800s , development of Dennis Creek and Cape Island (Cape May) brought prosperity to the tiny bayshore towns in between them. One of these was Dyer's Creek ( renamed Dias Creek at a later time). In 1814, residents of Dyer's Creek met at the home of Daniel Cresse to form the Dyer's Creek Meadow Banking Company. The Company was set up to bank and drain thier wetlands and marshes using a system of dams, sluices, and floodgates. Several acres of wetlands were reclaimed , adding to the growth of this community. After the coming of the railroads, the county's focus was drawn eastward, and Dias Creek like many of the other bayshore communities, dwindled in importance. North end of Dias Creek. Hand Avenue (CR 658) crosses the headwaters of Skeeter Island Creek as it heads off eastward to Cape May Court House. Southern end of Dias Creek, looking west. Dias Creek Road (CR 612) also connects to Cape May Court House. Built in 1888, the Dias Creek UME church on Dias Creek Road is typical of the southern New Jersey churches of the period. West off of Route 47 is the Kimble's Beach tile. For the most part uninhabited marshland, it has been set up as a wildlife preserve. Kimble's Beach Road (southern road) heads to Kimble's Beach, and is paralelled to the north by Cook's Beach Road. While I haven't been able to find any documentation to confirm it, I believe Cook's Beach may have had a small development once. A ruined structure and remnants of a few foundations viewable at low tide lead me to believe theat a small village once existed here before it was claimed by erosion At the intersection of Cook's Beach Road and NJ 47 is the Cape May County Department of Mosquito Control. It was formerly known as the Mosquito Commission, and a local joke was that they were in charge of making sure there were enough mosquitos to go around. In the past few years the name was changed to give a clearer definition of thier mission . They've placed ditches in the marshlands, not to drain them but to give predatory fish access to mosquito breeding grounds. They also do spraying and educate the public on methods of keeping these pests under control. The site was a former WW II prisoner of war camp. At the end of Kimble's Road is the small knot of houses that make up Kimble's Beach. The view northward from Kimble's Beach. Reed's Beach ( see previous entry) is in the distance. In the spring, the bay beaches are closed due to the spawning season for horseshoe crabs. During the full and new moon phases in April and May, thousands of these creatures swarm on the Delaware Bay beaches to lay thier eggs. Migrating birds come to feast on the eggs, giving them enough nourishment to continue on to thier summer grounds in the Arctic. Called "a living fossil", these scary looking but harmless crabs have been around since before dinosaurs walked the earth, and are a vital link in the food chain. Overharvesting in recent years has led to their decline, and they are now classified as a protected species. Well, that's all I have for this installment. Hope you've enjoyed it. As always, comments, questions, and suggestions are more than welcome: They're encouraged ! REPLIES : Thanks guys. I've posted this in the last entry, but in case you may have missed it, I'm reposting again. I would agree that a fresh water marshand would hold a diversity of plant life, but this is not the case for the tidal marshes. They are at or inches above the high tide line, and are flooded twice daily with salt water from the ocean , which kills off most plant life. The flora in the tide marsh is predominantly cord grass and salt hay, two species that have a high salt tolerance. With increased development of the region , more fresh water is being pumped from the county's aquafiers. A resut of this is that the "salt line" ( the point where a stream or creek has a high enough salinity level to be considered brackish) has been advancing steadily upstream in recent years. A result of this has been the killing off of species that are salt intolerant, like this stand of salt petrified trees along the banks of Green Creek. Thanks for the input. As per your advice. I've gone and gotten a few MMP's that I've used in this posting, notably PEGs scrub bushes and other flora that I've used to highlight the edges of the salt marsh and areas where the salinity levels allow other types of flora to gain hold. I use the tilesets to restrict the types of buildings available, but sometimes land values get too high before I can make the low wealth stuff historic, and if I don't pay attention, I get a trailer park full of Sheeza Brick Houses . I've been known to temporarily zone dirty industry in the heart of residential areas to depress land values so the low wealth stuff can develop. It's not going to get me many votes as Mayor of the Year, but if they don't like it, there's always the bulldoze option ( Muhahaha!) Yeah, FAR makes it all happen here. Previous versions of the region had the roads zig-zagging thier way through the marshes, and that was something that really bugged me. I'm extremely pleased with the results that the FAR has allowed me to accomplish.

(All the pictures are available on high definition, click on).

here is the bird's eye, not the prettiest in the world but i had to cram what i wanted into the smallest space possible this is the anchor, believe it or not, everything is built around or in this case to the south of it's location the rail service yard directly below where trains are sent to be repaired here the passenger train cars are sent a little lower to be refurbished the tank cars where liquids are loaded into railcars close-up of the trailers being loaded onto flatbed rail-cars some loading cranes another loading crane naturally something this large will need it's own resources for power and water and to keep out thieves and make sure the place doesn't go up in smoke dedicated fire station a nearby water tower in case flames do break-out the reservoir that is used to refill the water tower when there is a drought. there's a little bridge that the employee's can go fishing but i wouldn't trust anything caught. on overflow channel system to keep the channel from overflowing it's banks the end of the line for the water supply with a windmill pumping system. (creator note, had no choice since i couldn't find a transition piece to connect this canal series to another so i could have a continuous canal system) nicely secured power station that's on the city grid but can supply back-up power to the rail depot if the main power station's fail a police presence to maintain order and a small diner where the employee's can go and get a real hot meal instead of off the roach coach and this is the local speed trap that the workers in the rail depot know about but people passing through don't (can you see it ?) here's a better view and last but not least the southern passenger station where new residents come through those who have seen the old Wilmer CJ will recognize the basic layout and mostly everything is in place. the only thing i can't figure out is the dead grass around some of the rail lines. it only happens with certain lots. not sure if it's a bug w/the lot or the terrain mod which kind of makes the landscape incongruent but this can't be helped sadly. hope you enjoyed this installment *personal note* big difference in image quality from the original PNG's vs. stripped down JPEG's. of course i can't tell when someone downloads the pic if they were uploaded to simtrop but i think the trade-off in image quality makes up for that fact. what do you think ?