DAY 20, AT JELLYBRIDGE, TOWN PLANNING, UNDERGROUND TOWN & TRANSPORT, book 4, building

|| days 20-18 || March, 12-14 || Jellybridge Estate || Alice and  Raiden reached Jellybridge House in the early evening and met with Ethan, head town planner, to discuss the underground town and the town’s underground transport system as well as the networks for plumbing and cables. The big question was: How deep and far to dig and what to prioritise? Alice looked thoughtful and said: ‘We need to figure out a way to build only a minimum underground now, but do so in a way so we can extent the tunnel network later and easily.’ ‘Why not build all now?’ Ethan challenged. ‘It’s not important enough,’ Alice returned. ‘I want us to focus on the core elements of the town. Besides, it’s a lot of work, and we don’t even know whether we really want underground traffic. What if we find out that avoiding traffic completely is the better option?’ Ethan shook his head. ‘Because of the peculiarities of the site, we had to move the Gods Garden far away from the tourist area, contrary to our original plans for which we wanted to make the garden easily accessible to visitors. Also, the Roof Gardens are much further north now. But with an underground which runs the same course as the wall, along our outer circle, we can reconnect the tourist area to some of the town’s hotspots like the Roof Gardens, the Party Den, the Main Gate, the Gods Garden. This line would even ensure that not all tourist cross the town but stay in the outer circle to get to these places without bothering the towners.’ ‘Hm.’ Alice mumbled, frowning. A little impatiently, Ethan continued. ‘We’ll dig deep in key spots of the town for the foundations of the Yards, for the Roof Gardens which will have the highest buildings and below which we want to build the underground town and—’ Alice interrupted. ‘Only we have a lot more space at this site and don’t actually need the underground. It was a fun idea. But it’s a lot of work.’ Ethan shook his head. ‘The argument for the underground still holds: we want to test whether we can use the underground in a healthy way so that more of the ground can be left to nature. I think that’s an important experiment and we shouldn’t forego it. Alice, I know that you want to complete the town in a neck-breaking time, and I’m with you. But all our underground ideas are good and worthwhile testing. And since we’ll have to dig deep anyway for all the foundations of the higher buildings, including our main library, we are deep down already. We won’t get a better chance than the early stage of the building phase to carve a network of tunnels for transport of goods, for the electric railpods the public can use along the main lines, for the emergency line for our medics, plus we can use these tunnels for our plumbing and our cables which makes them easily accessible in case of repairs. And Alice, we can easily close the tunnels if we want to test what it’s like not to have them. But we can’t easily build them at any other time.’ Alice exhaled noisily. ‘OK, talk me through it.’ Underground line 1:WALL LINE, starting next to Jellybridge Road in the south, and going from gate to gate, second stop Explorers Gate, third stop Yards Gate, fourth stop Main Gate, fifth stop: Gardens Gate, sixth stop: Apple Gate, seventh stop: Party Gate, eighth stop: Pilgrims Gate, ninth stop: Cherry Gate and the last stop Camping Gate; YARDS CIRCLE LINE, starting at the train station, second stop: the warehouses outside of town. These two stops are only for product transports. The public line starts at the Yards Gate, circling from one Yards complex to the next, third to seventh stop: Yards one to five, which are close to five of the educational squares. Eighth stop back at the Yards Gate; between the first and the last Yards complex there is an emergency stop at the General Hospital; the ROOF GARDENS LINE connects the caves of the underground town and has stops near the Challenge Garden, at the Party Gate, near one of the educational squares, which boarders on the Roof Gardens, and one at the intersection between Cherry Circle and Gardens Road. There should be a connection between the Yards Line and the Roof Gardens line unless we count the Wall Line as connection. And that’s it.’ ‘How about we extent the ROOF GARDENS LINE to connect to the General Hospital and with that to the Yards Line?’ Alice asked, smiling a little. ‘You’re the boss,’ Ethan returned. ‘And I like it.’ Raiden nodded and said: ‘I remember an idea where we use the top part of a tunnel for emergency transports.’ ‘Yes,’ Ethan said. ‘My team is discussing both ideas at the moment. Idea one, several tunnels on top of each other, or idea two, split one tunnel into several sections.’  Raiden nodded and asked: ‘Would the emergency network cover the whole town?’ ‘We cover the most densely populated areas. The town centre can use the clinics above the centre, and the people furthest away from the buzz are still close to the Yards Circle Line. And we are thinking of First Aid units at all educational squares.’ Alice nodded. ‘On a side note,’ she said. ‘Have you talked about the names for the educational squares?’ ‘On and off. Without results.’ ‘Hm. I think we should treat the squares like the streets, and not name them after people who have a meaning for us but who might not have a meaning for future generations — with the exception of Socrates and Da Vinci because they have contributed to the spirit of the town.’ ‘Good thinking,’ Ethan returned. ‘What could it be? Flowers? Animals?’ Alice shrugged. ‘How about the elements? Water Square, Fire Square, Earth Square, Air Square, plus Socrates Square and Da Vinci Square?’  Ethan smiled. ‘I’m in.’ ‘Me too,’ Raiden said. ‘And I wonder whether we shouldn’t have underground connections to the Central Square and the clinics’ area above the square.’ Ethan frowned. ‘Well, we said that the town’s centre and the clinic’s area above the square should be a walking and wheelchair area alone. But, what do you have in mind?’ ‘Two more lines,’ Raiden returned. ‘THE FOLD LINE crossing the town from north to south and connecting with the start and the finish of the WALL LINE thereby constituting a WALL/FOLD CIRCLE LINE. There should be some additional rails at the overlap points, and people can choose to get out or to continue to the FOLD LINE. Plus this line could later be extended to include a station at Jellybridge House.’ Alice nodded. ‘Sounds good. What your second line?’ ‘A CENTRAL LINE which would have three stops in the clinics area, then a stop between Central Square and The Senses Garden, one at the south corner of Central Square, the next two on Central Avenue, first at the crossing with Elder Circle, then at the crossing with Beech Circle, connecting to the YARDS CIRCLE LINE, next stop connects to the ROOF GARDENS LINE, next stop the main library, next back to Central Avenue corner Lime Circle, next the General Hospital, then Main Gate, the train station and as last stop the underground car parking spaces for towners and tourists.’ Alice smiled. ‘OK. Now I’m hooked. And I’ll add a line, too. The EXPLORERS LINE, mainly for tourists, running from the underground car park to the train station, from there to the Explorers Gate and then it stops along the Explorers Road and runs all the way to Central Square or even as far as the clinics where this line could again connect to the CENTRAL LINE, creating the CENTRAL/EXPLORER CIRCLE LINE. Raiden chuckled. ‘You want the town to sit on a big Swiss cheese?’ Alice and Ethan laughed. And Ethan said: ‘It will be safe. And it will mean less stress on nature and on the people above ground because quite a potion of people will be travelling underground. It will also make maintenance for our sewage, waste and cable networks easier because these pipes will be more accessible.’ Alice and Raiden nodded, and Ethan added: ‘Due to the railpods we use underground, there will be enough traffic on the lines so that we can easily redistribute the energy regenerated by braking railpods. In fact, if we build all suggested lines, then the activities along the rails will contribute to the town’s energy needs.’ ‘By braking with the railpods?’ Alice asked. ‘Exactly that’s when energy is generated and the Tech Innovations Team suggests to build multiple receivers: on the pod itself, for the lights along the lines and at the stations, for passing pods and in batteries, especially at stations. The stored energy can then be used either in town or at times of low traffic.’ ‘Hm. How large would the railpods and the tunnels be?’ Alice asked. ‘A railpod has the width of an armchair, seventy centimetres, and it will have a kind of loading deck at the back for luggage or shopping bags. The pod is open, and you have a steering wheel. Most of the tunnels would have two tracks so that railpods can pass each other and it will be possible to change direction at stations.’ ‘And the stations are built like half a roundabout?’ Raiden asked. ‘Yes, you can pass a station with your railpod, or if you want to get off, you slow down, drive to the left into the station and park your pod along a kind of jetty, where up to five pods can be parked on either side of each jetty. If you want to drive on, you choose a railpod and either follow the half-circle to the end and join the line again, or you use the bridge to walk to the other side and pick a railpod there. According to the simulation, there will always be railpods available and everyone is independent of schedules.’ Raiden frowned. ‘I’ll take a look at the simulation. We know from car traffic that individual cars congest streets, busses who transport the same number of people don’t cause congestions. Why would this be different underground?’ Ethan grimaced. ‘I don’t know. Can you check this. Because our simulation suggested that it would work without congestions and with a higher level of satisfaction because people are independent of schedules and have their own space in the pod.’ Raiden nodded. ‘I’ll take a look. Maybe it works because our town is a walkers town and transport is only attractive or necessary when luggage is involved.’ Ethan’s eyes lit up. ‘That sounds familiar. But, please, I’m a big fan of the simulations and of being careful.’ ‘Will do.’ ‘What about dangers in those pods,’ Alice asked. ‘There is the high voltage. But the tech people say, it will be as safe as it gets. Plus the pods don’t go faster than twenty-four miles per hour. The town doesn’t need high speed, and we’re not about high speed. The underground is about convenience, about transport, and about having fewer people on the ground.’ ‘So it’s a fun fair feel to get from A to B when you need to or when you have luggage?’ Ethan chuckled. ‘Yes. That’s it. Apart from all the transports of goods from the workshops and factories in the yards to the warehouses and the train station. But, yes, there is a fun fair element intended. And the Tech Team and the Ecology Team wanted a transport network that is efficient while at the same time using as few resources as possible — which was actually one of the arguments against building trains, I now remember. The railpods have no shenanigans and only need little power to get going and to keep going, and while going they generate power. The tunnels will have a minimum widths, plus space for the town’s plumbing and cables. The stations will obviously be larger and the underground town will have several big caves. But most of the network is easy to build, because we will only use much of those tunnels with small railpods.’ ‘What about families?’ Raiden asked. ‘They can hitch several pods together. Plus, remember we said we wanted a transport system for goods. One of the tech people came up with the idea of using something like a conveyor belt which runs below the train tracks.’ ‘And those tracks lead to some collection point?’ Alice asked. ‘Yes. Each station has a scanner and when a package has reached its destination it gets pushed down to a second track which in turn lands in a container in a locked bay. Is a container full, then someone gets notified, and the container is lifted to the surface.’ Alice rubbed her forehead. ‘I’d like this, all of this, in writing and with sketches. Have we ordered a tunnel boring machine?’ ‘A small one. Two more would be good, especially a big one for the underground town.’ It was nearly ten at night, when Alice, Ethan and Raiden met with Daria, Noel, Light and Jokull in the basement to take a look at an early version of the underground network simulation and to discuss apps the team was developing to plan the construction details and to coordinate the building teams. Some hours later, Alice found her room on the first floor, slipped into the large fourposter.

© Charlie Alice Raya, book 4, building, 2025