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Showing results for tags 'regional approach '.
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To being with, the M in the title stands for modernization and this CJ will focus on a large and ongoing redevelopment project taking place in my region. The primary focus is updating the highway network to a higher(and more realistic) standard, for both capacity and safety reasons. I will of course showcase other area's of interest as well, but that is the primary focus. The original freeway system was quite hastily built to accommodate a large population boom approx. 50-60 years ago. It was of a poor design, featuring many short ramps and lane changes(AKA vanilla SC4). It was indeed quite treacherous to drive on. Finally after many years of incessant whining, not to mention thousands of fatalities, those in power have finally decided to heed the public's pleas and modernize the network. In others words, I finally started to frequently use the RHW mod It's important to note that this city exists on another Earth-like planet I call Azura. So any reference to things being the largest this or tallest that are not in direct comparison to anything on Earth but rather other structures on that planet. The planet is however very similar to Earth in things like gravity, air pressure and technology so naturally the types of structures seen are basically the same as is the time frame. For convenience sake, the passage of time and the development history of the world is the same as on Earth. The only significant difference is that the world population is about ten times lower(pop 735,000,000) as water covers over 95% of the planet. Thus cities are far smaller. A city of 2.5 million is the equivalent to a city of about 20 million on Earth. The district of Pretoria itself was established about 200 years ago(under a different name) making it a relatively new region on planet Azura. It is the 3rd largest city in the country of Albion with a populations of 2.4 million, but is by far the largest city on the west coast by the Medina Ocean. Furthermore economically it is the second largest behind only the east coast metropolis of Old York. Albion itself is the second most populated country on Azura(pop 89,000,000). Pretoria is also the capital of Corsica, one of the 5 original states of Albion. Which is a prominent feature on the nations flag: The district experienced its first major population boom from around 1920 to 1930. A second larger boom occurred from 1950 to 1970 due to the discovery of certain natural resources nearby. It was during that time that the highway network was originally built. After that the city experienced several short periods of growth and decline finally culminating in the great worldwide recession of the early 90's. At that time Pretoria implemented many economic reforms and while it was at first one of the hardest hit cities it was one of the first to turn around its fortunes. Since then growth has continued unabated for the past 2 decades, a period of which saw the rise of many glass and steel skyscrapers while the regional government padded its coffers. This in turn enabled it to finally properly reconstruct the highway system during the 2000's. Although I'm tempted to write more of historical back story about the city and planet, that was never really the plan. So that'll probably about as detailed as I'll get on the topic, sorry. I wasn't actually planning on making a CJ until after I completed the region or at least finished most of the cites within it. But based on the current rate of development and seeing as how the region is already about 9 years old having started it way back in 2006, because of playing the game on and off over the years and an obsession for fine-tuning, that would of meant I would be making this CJ around 2020, if ever. Truth be told I may never be able to complete the region, but I am hopeful that I will. As it stands, Pretoria is currently about 67% complete development wise, with a population of 1.4 million. The final population projection for the region(i.e. my goal) is 2.5 million. Pretoria is still far from being complete. The region was originally named Verloren, which is kind of a weird name for a city/region and something its constituents had frequently complained about. Shortly after the metro population had exceeded one million, it was decided that a more dignified name was needed. In the end, Pretoria was selected. And here's the transportation map, admittedly a relatively crude one by CJ standards. It's my intent to make more detailed version sometime in the future. Highways which predominately travel in a north-south direction are even numbered starting from the east; highway 700 & 702. Those which travel primarily east-west are odd numbered starting from the north; highways 701(yet to be built), 703, 705, 707 & 709. The fundamental transportation network, highways and rail lines, were all planned in advance of development. It was quite the change from the "build it as you go" approach I used when I first started playing SC4. There have been numerous revisions to the plan over the years. Freight and passenger train service is completely separated as per legislation requiring such. The commuter rail service, called Fastraxx, operates 6 lines(only 4 of which I've built so far) plus an airport express service(for an airport that doesn't actually exist yet... how does that work??? But I swear I'll get to it one day!) In addition there are two competing freight companies with completely separate systems. Which means in essence there are basically 3 completely independent rail systems. The two competing freight railways are the ICR: the Intercontinental Railway and the GWR: the Great Western Railway. The ICR is approx. 50% larger than the GWR, although the GWR has a slightly larger network on the west coast of the continent where Pretoria is located. There was talk of a merger between the two large freight companies during the last recession 2 decades ago but since then they have both diversified and been highly profitable. There are several junction points between the two freight companies to allow for interchanging but there are no connections between the passenger lines and the freight lines since as mentioned above, the legislation in place prohibits freights service on any line where passenger service operates for safety reasons. Which is why it is surprising to many that the highway system was left in such a substandard condition contrast to the heavily legislated and well established safety culture seen on the railways. Really it was just me not accepting the RHW mod from the start, but don't tell the people that. There are no high speed rail lines within the city limits. You could say that HSR is basically at its infancy in the world where my region exists. It exists in a few places but in general the world functions just fine without it. The Pretoria region has been growing rapidly since the last recession and because of that there was a large sum of funds available to improve the transportation network. The Pretoria Regional Governing Authority, PRGA in short, realized that significant improvements were needed in capacity in order to support future growth, keep congestion to a minimum and to maintain Pretoria's place as an economic powerhouse on Azura. A detailed study called the Greater Pretoria Transportation Initiative or GPTI for short, was undertaken to determine what part of the transportation network needed the most improvement. Many saw this as a total and complete waste of time since even a homeless person on the street could tell where the most glaring need was: the highway system. And the dude doesn't even have a bicycle never mind a car! In any case, this study included all forms of transportation; highways, road, rail, sea & air networks. There was a detailed analysis of HSR within that study. It was determined that most of the existing passenger rail corridors could not support high speed trains due to the track geometry/profile. Basically the lines were too curvy. New lines through the inner city were non-starters as that would of required large scale demolition of heavily developed areas. The study concluded that HSR was not required within the metro area and that the current passenger train system was already sufficiently enough. It did endorse upgrading passenger rail lines outside regional limits to HSR to connect the city to other regions to provide an alternative to air travel. That however, is the jurisdiction of the federal authority and not the PRGA. To date they have yet to take any action in that regard. The study ultimately concluded that the area in need of the most work was in fact the highway system(no ****). But be fair, the study did provide a comprehensive analyses of the system, identifying its precise weak points. There's no point in just randomly throwing money all over the place, it only makes sense to allocated it to the areas the required it the most. Something that couldn't have been done without such a detailed study. And thus the rebuilding of the regions highways was initiated. The grand undertaking was known simply as The Modernization Project or the M project in short. The projected cost of the project was approx. $20 Billion, baring no cost overruns of course. Geez golly, wonder what the chances of that are... And the estimated construction time was 5 to 6 years. All that for the highway project alone, there are a few other infrastructure redevelopment projects that will take place as well. We will find out later if they managed to stay within those parameters. But enough talk, lets get to some pictures!(finally) There will be no pictures of the M project just yet, but rather an overview of the larger cities within the district of Pretoria. Astoria; pop. 815,000(currently only 75% complete, pop projection 1,050,000) noted for; the financial capital of the west coast, the A&B Tower, the WN Building(world nations) headquarters of the allied nations, the massive 700-705 interchange, numerous landmark supertall structures, numerous sporting facilities and convention centers, the busiest freeway in the world Major Interchanges; 700-705 and 702-705 Tallest Building; Empire Plaza(tallest building in the world as determined by roof height) 1,614ft(491.9m) 110 floors Tallest Structure; The A&B Tower(tallest freestanding structure in the world) 2,210ft(673.5m) Calgon; pop. 387,000 noted for; the majestic Cisco Bay Bridge, a massive carter impact site, large steel smelter, ICR rail yard, harbor, cement plant, soccer stadium, telecommunications tower, chronic unemployment and lastly... its constantly expanding fudge factory, if you know what I mean. Major Interchanges; 700-702-707 and 700-705 and 705-707 Tallest Building; AIC Plaza 675ft(205.7m) 33 floors Tallest Structure; telecommunication tower(naming rights for sale) 1,219ft(371.5m) Dresden; pop. 88,900 noted for; its mountainous terrain, large harbor & massive power plant. Major Interchanges; 700-702 Tallest Building; The Euro Center 432ft(131.6m) 36 floors Tallest Structure; Dresden GS stack 660ft(201m) Cisco Bay; pop. 27,100 noted for; its cable stayed bridge, once the longest in the world of its kind. Major Interchanges; 702-709 Tallest Building; Cardiff Capital Tower 306ft(93.3m) 23 floors Tallest Structure; Great Western Tower 559ft(170m) Lindin City; pop. 29,400 noted for; its historic downtown & large central park. Major Interchanges; 702-707 and 705-709 Tallest Building; Mary Arms Hotel 281ft(85.6m) 19 floors And that concludes the introduction. On the next and first update, we will see some of the actual changes made by the M project.
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