Gothic Whirlpool Interchange 60×60 "Monument of Capacity"
My novel interchange design I am most proud of!
This is my four level interchange that sacrifices all expense and cost to accomodate turning movements without the use of long winding ramps common to turbines and whirlpools or too steep ramps common to stack interchanges in a space efficient style only using the space required by the sliproads along the highway in the manner of 3-level full diamond and roundabout interchanges!
Not a stack? Not a turbine?
What kind of wizardry magic have I resorted to then? None.
How many road lamps have I cut off? None.
What crazy angles have I used? Only 45 degrees…
Impossible? Well it may be a whirlpool in a certain technical sense but to be able to handle grade separated left turns in such a small area it takes quite the novel solution inspired from the way through movements are grade separated on gothic cross style interchanges and so I call it a Gothic Whirlpool Interchange instead.
The down side to this design is enormous expense, the required flat land to place it and the required height and thus you would only ever want to build it if you really want to go big or go home. Or go nowhere?
TLDR:
What it essentially does, minimizes use of zoneable land while maintaining a fully free-flow, low delay, very high capacity interchange with only a small portion where you have to slow down but ample road afterwards to speed back up.
Pros:
Fully free flow, low delay, high capacity interchange design
Minimal+ right of way requirements (For a full free-flow interchange this truly is impressive)
Cons:
Enormous cost compared to other types of interchange designs
Another con is the fact I decided to connect it to an elevated highway, it was not required to minimize steep slope or anything it was just a design decision on my part as the most likely place for a rare interchange like this where minimal right of way is required is an Urban setting where you have likely elevated a highway to gain more flat zoning space and optimize amount of structures needed for elevated construction.
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