Why in the water?

[ryanbatc 12,992]

Is this a real place in New Orleans? A few miles west of KMSY I find these bridges following the waterways. UTX, GEXn... anyone else have this?Why don't the bridges go across the water in the shortest distance?

[Guest kwilson]

Is this a real place in New Orleans? A few miles west of KMSY I find these bridges following the waterways. UTX, GEXn... anyone else have this?Why don't the bridges go across the water in the shortest distance?

If in doubt Google Earth.And believe it or not it looks accurate. I think the area must be a swamp so the "land" in your pic is probably a swamp in reallife (FSX doesn't have very good swamp textures). Wherever they built the road (I guess it is really a causeway) would have been over swamp and it would be easier to build it with the vegetation cleared.

[Guest sillyeagle]

That's just how they do it down south. Unlike here in S Dakota, or where you are in MN, they build bridges right down the center of the river. I know here, as you suggest, they build bridges to cross in the shortest distance. We're just not used to seeing it done like that. Up in Canada they don't even use bridges, they just make a ramp and jump over.

[bobbyjack 61]

Hey RyanJust where is that? I'd like to see what the defaul scenery looks like.Bob

[ryanbatc 12,992]

Take off from KMSY, go west, you'll see it

[scott967 62]

The ground textures in the screenie are not too realistic. Once you get outside the levee in Kenner, everything is wet until you get past the Bonnet Carre spillway. The relatively new freeway down to Destrehan goes right through the swamp area. You see some of the same thing on the I-55. scott s..

[Guest jshyluk]

Up in Canada they don't even use bridges, they just make a ramp and jump over.

ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE!!! Man, this hoses me off, eh? EVERYBODY who knows ANYTHING aboot Canada knows for a FACT that we just wait for the water to freeze over and then skidoo across it. And the water is frozen from late July all the way until mid July. If the ice is broken, then we will line up to cross the Peter Manns Bridge, but that's rare as the Peter Manns Bridge is getting to old for much more use. As for FSX, it seems that is there's so much as a foot of standing water about (maybe less), then it gets treated as water by the terrain system. For example, around FSX Vancouver there are dozens of small square bits of water about the size of a house. Real world zoning bylaws state that if you build roadways that you have to set aside a certain percentage of land for road drainage. So, all throughout metro Vancouver, you can find these small man-made depressions designed to catch excess water. In FSX, they show up as little watery squares. There are a few within walking distance of my house. For the longest time, I thought they were mistakes in the Vancouver scenery (such as the gigantic Vancouver Mystery Corner in the Burrard Inlet in FSX), but a short hike proved that the water squares are real. Jeff ShylukSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[Guest drm]

As a native New Orleanian, that area is the I-10/310 intersection and, while not 100% accurate compared to real life/real world, the default FSX terrain there gives "the sense" of what it really does look like though it substitutes farmland for the marsh/swamp that should be there. There's a 10-11 mile double bridge elevation that runs along the SW edge/coast of Lake Ponchatrain westward. South of that is the "Bonne Carre Spillway" which is a low elevation area used to drain water from the Mississippi River into Lake Ponchatrain if the river water level gets too high. The spillway control gates get opened for this reason every few years --- totally dependent on the snowfall melt each Spring from the Ohio-Missouri-Mississippi drainage area (essentially the entire central US).Considering the real world elevation of parts of New Orleans being below sea level - and consequently below both river and lake level - this is a "natural" drainage area which is quite swampy. That intersection is "under water" year round; ground nearer the river dries out routinely but near the lake, well, it's great fishing!FWIW, this same area doesn't look a whole lot "better" with UT-USA installed - better in terms of coast/shorelines that is. The landclassing is what really makes a difference in this area.

[Guest UlfB]

Is this a real place in New Orleans? A few miles west of KMSY I find these bridges following the waterways. UTX, GEXn... anyone else have this?

Here is a picture from that area taken from Earth Google. Even if the photo is cropped and a bit dark, you may easily detect that the highways are surrounded by water. Download Earth Google and have a look for yourself.