Texas Discussion Thread

TheRedRaider
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#31 Post by TheRedRaider » 19 Jun 2020 05:46

@flight50 I have been waiting for the day that this discussion thread would be started. As a Texan myself, I look forward to seeing what SCS has done with this great state.
Being from Lubbock I hope they put a garage here and also add some other details like the Buddy Holly Statue and Buddy Holly Center off of 19th St. (US-62/TX114) https://www.google.com/maps/@33.5779424 ... 312!8i6656. Also i'm not sure if its possible or needed but it would be cool to be able to drive on some of the brick streets here in downtown.
One question I have for y'all is do you think Loop 289 around Lubbock will make the game and what else about the Lubbock area would y'all like to see in the game
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flight50
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#32 Post by flight50 » 19 Jun 2020 06:29

I suppose once Pavel mentioned that he had someone on Texas last year, this thread could have popped up then but it didn't. But hey, better late than never :D .

I don't know much about Lubbock besides being home to Tech but I will take my shots guessing the outcome. So don't get offended, lol. Loop 289, doesn't make it. At 1:20 scale, its just not large enough. Unless SCS give us the expansion of city limits I posted about on page 1. There is enough distance between Lubbock and Amarillo to expand the circumference of each city. Otherwise, the other reason why I don't think the loop makes it is because of the roads that I think that will go thru it. I think US-82 and US-84 goes thru Lubbock. US-62 has to come from Hobbs but I think it could stops at US-82 and TX-114 and pick up again on the Northeast part of town. US-84 from Clovis goes all the way thru town and either terminate at I-27 or continue to US-380/I-20. I-27 is a no brainier so its in for sure. I expect Lubbock and Amarillo to be similar to Boise in how we will get density in driving thru town without a ring road though. Buddy Holly is a land mark and is definitely ATS worthy if we get that part of US-62 but I honestly don't see enough trucking on that road to bring that road.
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CodArk2
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#33 Post by CodArk2 » 19 Jun 2020 06:32

@averyc2506 Thats about 2 miles form where I live, so this conversation is HYPER-local to where I live. So I will chime in.
(specifically that is near the Tangier Outlets mall in Texas City, there is also a Bucee's truck stop on the other side of the freeway. Google has it wrong, that's Texas City, NOT Dickinson)

Locally, League City is considered the outskirts of suburban Houston. Texas City and Galveston are NOT considered suburbs of Houston but their own thing though they are still in Metro Houston. The Space Center is actually in Houston, League City is on the other side of Clear Creek in Galveston County.

I could see Galveston OR Texas City coming as a marked city, perhaps even both since Galveston is an island and can be pushed out to sea to give a longer drive over the Galveston Causeway. Galveston is better known than Texas City because of tropism. Galveston's main industries are tourism and health care (UTMB- University of Texas Medical Branch), Texas City's main industries are petrochemical products and shipping. Galveston and Texas City have similar population size (Galveston: 50,849, Texas City: 49,973) . Both are port cities, but Texas City has a much busier port than Galveston in terms of cargo. Galveston his a lot busier with cruise ships (tourism) but handles siginificantly less cargo than Texas City.

https://www.naipartners.com/research/te ... uary-2019/
Houston ranks as the 2nd busiest port in the US, Texas City as the 18th busiest, and Galveston as the 59th busiest. Even Freeport, a city most people haven't heard of, has more cargo at 31st nationally. Galveston used to have more cargo shipping but that's been in decline for decades.

Galveston's municipal code heavily restricts where you can drive in a truck, only a few roads are open for truck traffic:
https://library.municode.com/tx/galvest ... ESCEHEVEPR
Trucks can drive on Seawall, but usually views of the ocean are blocked by the cars parking on the side of the road.

Most of Galveston isn't built for trucks, you get people parking on the side of the road, low hanging trees and power lines slow speed limits and LOTS AND LOTS of stop lights
(also, interesting side note, stop lights in Galveston are inconsistent, and unlike in the rest of Texas where they are all horizontal, stoplights in Galveston's core are usually vertical:
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.2993691 ... 384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.3046915 ... 384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.3111363 ... 384!8i8192
The Truck Routes though have been switched over to the horizontal lights seen elsewhere in Texas for the most part.)

In fact illegal truck traffic in Galveston has caused issues in the past, with trucks hitting trees and power cables:
https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/baya ... 743467.php

Galveston has a Target, Walmart and a Home Depot, a Kroger grocery store, several car dealershipsand a port. Besides the cruise ships there are some cargo wharves as well. Galveston has a grain elevator and some chemical companies, and I have seen some special transport-esque cargos being loaded onto flatbeds form time to time. Pelican Island to the north of Galveston has a lot of Oil Rig Construction and maintenance though I have sen less of it over the years. There is a ferry connecting the island to the Bolivar peninsula that trucks can use. Highway 87 goes up to High Island then up FM 124 to I-10 then Beaumont. Most truck traffic on Galveston is on the north side of the city, around Harborside Drive.

Texas City is the opposite, most of it's truck traffic is on the south side of the city, near its petrochemical plants and port. Texas City has a Lowe's, a Walmart (technically in La Marque, which is basically a suburb of Texas City), several grocery stores like Kroger and BHEB, a Bucee's ,several car dealerships, a port, lots of Petrochemical plants including the Galveston bay refinery ( http://clui.org/ludb/site/texas-city-refinery) which is the second largest petrochemical complex in the US ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum ... ted_States ), and many industrial machine manufacturers for the petrochemical industry. I45 does not go through Texas City for the most part, , it is instead served by Texas State Highway 146 and by the Emmet F. Lowry Expressway (FM 1764) from I45.



Something to note: both interstate 45 and State Highway 146 are under construction. And not just "patching potholes" construction, I mean "tearing the freeway down to the dirt and rebuilding it from the ground up" construction that is completely changing the appearance of everything around the freeways. SH146 is being rebuilt into a proper freeway south of La Porte without stoplights and higher speed limits. Interstate 45 is being widened and having all of its bridges replaced and on/off ramps reconfigured, and almost every overpass spanning the freeway is being torn down and made into an underpass. The freeway itself is also being raised several feet above its previous level.

SH146 information (mostly for locals but gives some idea of the region this is in):
https://www.sh146.com
https://www.constructionequipmentguide. ... hape/47484
https://www.kemah-tx.gov/244/Hwy-146-Expansion
https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/proj ... bluff.html. (construction on this is ongoing)
https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/proj ... fm517.html (construction on this will start in 2022)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3h_i09dJFE. (details portions of it in sebrook specifically)

Construction on SH 146 is not expected to be complete until 2024 at the earliest. While there are proposals to widen and upgrade things all the way to Galveston, funding has not become available for it yet. I can see SH146 being in the game as it runs along Galveston bay, and goes between Galveston, through Texas City, and up to Baytown and I10. It also connects with SH225 (Houston Ship Channel) and crosses the Fred Hartman Bridge, a local landmark ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hartman_Bridge ), but the construction may cause issues with getting the road in for a while.

Interstate 45 has a major construction project too. They are widening the freeway from beltway 8 all the way down to Galveston Island. The construction between beltway 8 (the outmost loop around Houston that is also a toll road) and NASA Parkway is complete, its now 5 lanes each way and an HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane, and all overpasses over the road were taken down and made into underpasses. Now the construction is moving south and between NASA Parkway and Galveston.

I45 construction information:
https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/proj ... nasa1.html (construction ongoing)
https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/proj ... fm518.html (construction ongoing)
https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/proj ... seway.html (construction started in places, will start late this year in others)
https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/proj ... treet.html (not started yet)
https://www.click2houston.com/news/loca ... -complete/
https://communityimpact.com/clear-lake- ... s-march-1/
https://communityimpact.com/houston/bay ... al-months/

Construction is expected to last until 2025, though some areas will be done before that. The freeway will get rid of all of the old, outdated bridges and on/off ramps along the stretch of freeway. Also note that almost every overpass spanning interstate 45 will be converted into an underpass with I45 becoming the overpass. The road will be5 lanes each way until league city, when it will become 4 lanes each way.

I am only noting all this because the google street view images are coming in the middle of this construction project and while the construction is very obvious in some areas, it is more subtle in others. Anyone working at this corridor needs to be aware of the construction in this area.

In addition, there has been construction going on where Loop 610 connects with interstate 45 that recently ended:
https://houston.culturemap.com/news/cit ... ete-txdot/
The connecters are in the google street view but when they were taken the connectors were not opened to drive on yet.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.6957334 ... 384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.6957125 ... 384!8i8192

And if Freeport, a major petrochemical town in its own right, is planned, I should note that Texas State Highway 288 is ALSO having construction between downtown Houston to just after Beltway 8, adding in toll lanes and changing up bridges and on and off ramps and connecters to routes like Loop 610 and beltway 8:
https://drive288.com/project-overview/
https://www.click2houston.com/features/ ... expansion/

Houston has a lot of construction projects that happen off and on, and street view tends to lag behind the construction, sometimes by months or years.
fra_ba
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#34 Post by fra_ba » 19 Jun 2020 07:23

So Texas city has container-type port? It just seems the port is kind of oil products shipping docks
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flight50
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#35 Post by flight50 » 19 Jun 2020 07:26

Mannn, I actually forgot about NASA. I know someone asked about NASA on a stream once. Pavel commented briefly on it. Sure it presents some cool cargo, but it has to fit the ATS economy. Its possible though.

Most of your comments are very research worthy. Lots of good stuff the devs could use. Texas is definitely always full of construction. So knowing what they are building and using renderings of the completed project helps visualize what it will be. SCS can build either the current under construction zones or the completed areas. Now one thing I'd like to see SCS do are steel I-beams and concrete I-beams cargoes for all the construction bridges that go on here in Texas. very very easy cargo to make for special transport. My thing is, if SCS is map designing a construction area on Texas roads, I think they should be permanent construction zones and not update them when the construction completes in a patch, well at least no all of them.

Construction is another industry that should be huge in Texas. We could have at least half a dozen new construction prefabs in Texas if you ask me. In and around each of the 6 huge cities in the state should have room to add these. Then you have the numerous midsize to small cities that should also have construction zones that fit the city's size. Random events and detours should suite Texas well. Lots can happen to slow us down thru out all the roadworks stuff.

All ports in Texas could feature a particular branch in shipping for diversity. Scale will mess things up so SCS will have to do what they can.
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averyc2506
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#36 Post by averyc2506 » 19 Jun 2020 08:20

@CodArk2 holy crap you wrote a whole novel :lol: thanks for your time spent on that, i made sure to look at and read everything you put. looking on the map i guess northeast of galveston on SH87, that ferry would be really cool. it would also be neat to drive through bolivar peninsula, because ive heard that name many times from hurricanes and what not, so they should add house lots where it came down during a hurricane, and houses on stilts. speaking of hurricanes, scs should add natural disasters :lol: it would be fun to randomly have a blizzard, or hurricane, or tornado. before that better come an update to the weather and seasons though.


whenever i do a google map dive in texas, im always floored by how much construction there is. here in oregon, we barely get road widening or upgrades, and NEVER new freeways. texas on the other hand.... :shock: when theres big construction project happening in our state, everyone knows and its a big deal. when we go to vote, no one wants to pay for it, so we're stuck with 2 lane freeways in each direction going through downtown portland. and dont get me started on the columbia river crossing.. :lol: (tearing down 100 year old bridges for a way more faster and reliable one, that also includes a metro line im pretty sure !!) heres a pic of what im talking about:

https://www.oregonlive.com/resizer/clT_ ... 2b3d02.jpg
I make concept maps sometimes:
California
Louisiana
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flight50
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#37 Post by flight50 » 19 Jun 2020 08:31

Well Texas has lots of toll roads and a large population to use them. Add in stuff like tax dollars and lottery and there's a lot of funding. The roads are always getting work because the population keeps growing and traffic itself is high. Especially in the largest cities. Lots of trucking and public transportation here. There are no state taxes here and the cost of living is fairly low compared to other states so more and more companies move here and people follow. Housing is going up like crazy because of it though.
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CodArk2
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#38 Post by CodArk2 » 19 Jun 2020 09:53

@fra_ba Texas City's port is mostly for Petrochemicals products and other chemicals, some of which are hazardous. Most heavy industrial equipment is brought in by truck or train if it's not made nearby.

http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/co ... ty_313.php
http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/cr ... ty_313.php

Galveston used to have a container port, though it does not anymore. All of the cranes at pier 10 came down years ago. Its now largely cruise ships with some delivery of grain and chemicals.

http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/co ... ton_34.php
http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/cr ... ton_34.php

The port of Freeport is the second biggest container port in texas though:
http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/co ... ort_32.php

Of course, the Port of Houston is the biggest container port in Texas, and the Port of Houston's main container ports are at Barbour's Cut in la Porte and Bayport in Pasadena.
http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/co ... ton_60.php
http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/cr ... ton_60.php
https://porthouston.com/container-termi ... -terminal/
https://porthouston.com/container-termi ... -terminal/
https://porthouston.com/breakbulk-and-project-cargo-2/

So basically Houston’s port handles every cargo known to man, Texas City's is handles petrochemicals and petrochemical accessories (I tell you what), Freeport handles containers and some petrochemicals, Galveston's handles people and some bulk goods and grains.

@averyc2506
The Bolivar ferry is nice, there are a fleet of ships in different colors that provide service day or night.
https://www.bolivarpeninsulatexas.com/A ... ivar-Ferry

The Bolivar lighthouse is a landmark of that area:
https://www.bolivarpeninsulatexas.com/A ... Lightlouse
Its one of the first things you can see getting off the ferry from Galveston, its easily visible form Highway 87. The stilt houses are common on Bolivar Peninsula, and it's largely been rebuild since Ike. The stilt houses are also common not he west end of Galveston, and Tiki Island and Bayou Vista before reaching Galveston on I-45.

TX 87 used to continue to Beaumont past High Island but got washed out by a hurricane in the 1980s and they just never rebuilt it. High Island is notable since it's the highest point on the he Gulf of Mexico between Mobile Alabama and the Yucatan, it goes form Sea level to 40 feet above seal level quickly as its on a salt dome.

North of High Island you get the most "I can't believe it's not Kansas" terrain on earth.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.6409123 ... 6656?hl=en
fra_ba
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#39 Post by fra_ba » 19 Jun 2020 11:37

Thanks for the info!
Regarding refineries, 4 of top 10 largest refineries in the US are actually located in southeast Texas, one in Port Arthur, one in Texas City as you mentioned, one in Baytown and the last one in Beaumont. I expect to see at least 2 of them in game!
FirestormMk3
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Re: Texas Discussion Thread

#40 Post by FirestormMk3 » 19 Jun 2020 14:46

It would be cool to have border warehouses though where you could drop off and deliver cargo as it typically works now. People have talked about in the very very long run adding Canada and Mexico as a full North American truck simulator, and selfishly while I'd like it I'd rather have the 48 of continental USA first, but if they did later add Mexico they could and may let us just actually drive trucks across the border. Until that time it'd be cool if we could basically do it the way it's done now and deliver cargo that's headed across the border.

Huge wishful thinking wishlist, it'd be pretty cool if you could expand your company into Mexico and deliver cargo to such a crossing that a hired driver within that country could complete the delivery on. Just a thought.
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