Half-highways and divided highways in SimCity 3000

Contributor/author(s): Kyle D.J.

This article shows how to build half-highways and divided highways, like this:

These creations give you new aesthetic possibilities for your highways, and they really work as a valid part of the transportation network.

You will first need to follow the procedure described in another article, Better Bulldozing (#1305).  It will modify your installation of SimCity 3000 Unlimited so that you can do the following advanced highway editing.

After doing that, here are the steps to make the half-highway:

1. Start with a section of highway.  Add railroad track (or road) underpasses that go only halfway (1 tile) under the highway.  You'll need to do this one tile of highway at a time, and for long stretches of highway it takes some work. 
2. Bulldoze the extra railroad tracks (or road), and the other side of the highway.
3. All done!  Connect it to other parts of your transportation network however you wish. To make a divided highway, simply make a second section of regular highway next to this half-highway. Then repeat these steps to build the other half of the divided highway.

Railroad tracks?  Or roads?

I use railroad tracks because the graphics look better.  Obviously the game wasn't designed to create these half-highways, so the graphics can look a little strange.  If you use roads, you may see animated vehicles driving under the highway, going to and from nowhere.  Railroad tracks won't have animated trains doing this, and so look much better.  Also, railroad tracks blend in better than the yellow-striped road tiles.

Underpasses

You can easily make working underpasses, just like for regular highways:

If you want a road underpass instead, simply use a road rather than rail for that one tile of half-highway.  If you have already used rail, simply bulldoze that one tile of the half-highway, replace it with a new piece of highway, and then re-create that one piece of half-highway by using a road underpass instead of rail.

Transitions between Regular Highways and Divided Highways

Symmetric transition:

Asymmetric transition:

Both of these examples have a 4-tile wide median strip.  Obviously the graphics are a little strange because the game wasn't designed to do this.  But these transitions still function as a valid part of the transportation network.

Interchanges

If you experiment with ramps, you can build a full interchange between a divided highway and a crossroad, like this:

Note that you have to build regular highways with ramps first, then change the highways to half-highways.  It's a little tricky, but keep trying and it'll work.

To make it interesting, I made a hill in the 4-tile wide median strip, so I used a tunnel for the crossroad.  Using lots of trees helps to hide some of the strange graphics.  I had to leave those four "construction blocks" (pieces of highway) in there, otherwise the road around the ramps didn't line up properly.

Bridges

The image at the start of this article shows that you can also make bridges (both water and dry-land bridges) just like for regular highways.  (That image features a 2-tile wide median strip.)  Simply make the bridge using a regular highway, then bulldoze one half of the bridge, then connect a half-highway to each end of the bridge.

See also
Better bulldozing
Super-highways
Building on-ramps