I-630/I-430 | Big Rock Interchange "Life Size" Scale Model

[TheArkansasRoadgeek]

So, I go to a charter school in Fort Smith and we have these internship opportunities out in the community and I am either trying to get into the AHTD or another civil engineering firm in the area. I am thinking ahead on what presentable I want and I thought of a life size scale model of an interchange I have seen since I've been in diapers. I am trying to figure out I scale to build in, because I want to have the section of the I-630 that meets Finanical Centre Parkway a enterable area and they would walk on part of the 630 to exit the presentation.

The exhibition's main focus would be centered around the cloverleaf-directional T stack interchange of the two Interstates.

Any thoughts?

[NE2]

Are you aware that "life size" means a one-to-one scale?

[ColossalBlocks]

So, I go to a charter school in Fort Smith and we have these internship opportunities out in the community and I am either trying to get into the AHTD or another civil engineering firm in the area. I am thinking ahead on what presentable I want and I thought of a life size scale model of an interchange I have seen since I've been in diapers. I am trying to figure out I scale to build in, because I want to have the section of the I-630 that meets Finanical Centre Parkway a enterable area and they would walk on part of the 630 to exit the presentation.

The exhibition's main focus would be centered around the cloverleaf-directional T stack interchange of the two Interstates.

Any thoughts?

Have fun hauling an entire fucking interchange around. 

[Rothman]

Actually reminds me of the stress testing I saw at Turner Fairbanks.  Had an entire per-lane section of a curved bridge deck in one of their gigantic labs, ready to snap. 

[kurumi]

Let's do some math. (It sounds really sarcastic, but really the motivation is math being fun.)

If people are walking under a to-scale I-430/630 overcrossing, you'd need about 8 feet clearance vs. maybe 15 feet in real life? Then your model is about 2:1 scale. If you can make them crawl (4 feet), then your model is 4:1. The interchange is about 0.5 mile across (rough estimate from Google maps), so 1/4 of that is 660 feet; about 2 football fields.

If the entire interchange won't be walkable, but the I-630 overcrossing of S. Shackleford Road is? The overpass is 4 lanes + shoulders inside and out... looks like about 80 feet wide. Shrink that down to 4 feet wide (20:1) and your half-mile interchange is 132 feet long.

If you decide **** that, let's do HO scale: then 1/2 mile * 5280 feet * 1/87 = 30 feet and a few inches. Transport this in your 6-foot pickup truck, you'd have to tie a little red flag on the end, then you'd be OK :-)

TL;DR: interchanges are big :-)