General Road and Highway Discussion

[ijmorlan]

Maybe it's also time to have a conversation about how to make existing industrial zones more dense? Surely there are ways to create multi-story factories that weren't in the middle of a big green space? Didn't we do that once around here? (he asks tongue firmly in cheek)

You're not going to see many/any multi story factories performing the type of manufacturing that occurs in this region. Machines need to be installed on thick concrete slabs if you want to hold any reasonably tight tolerance (such as auto, aerospace, nuclear and medical manufacturing industries). I'm sure it's possible, but it's much cheaper to move somewhere where the factory can sprawl.

Industrial zones could be significantly denser even without stacking the manufacturing. First, they seem to be designed with typical suburban setbacks. What for? As far as I am concerned an industrial area should be 100% building except for the access roads; and even there I don’t see why there needs to be any non-paved space. Of course, depending on what exactly is inside the buildings care would need to be taken to avoid risks such as fires, but some production lines are already big enough on their own that I’m sure their design needs to take into account what can be safely near what.

I’m aware that I’m proposing to make an enormous, totally non-permeable surface, but the alternative is to mix acres of lawn with the non-permeable surfaces. My idea is essentially to collect together all of the lawn and keep it naturalized, which is better for drainage than lawn. So I think managing the runoff is an engineering problem, not a reason to stick to the current designs.

I am reminded of the Apple campus. It is office space, not industrial, but a huge annular building surrounded by (and surrounding) essentially a park replaces many blocks of typical suburban buildings separated by the aforementioned acres of useless grass.

I should add that my idea for designing multi-level manufacturing would be to use inclined conveyor belts to move items up and down. Of course how difficult this is and how much space it needs to take depends on the nature of the production process and the items being moved. And as someone else pointed out, the nature of the foundation needed for the equipment also depends on what is being done.