Monday, May 2, 2011

Three-leaf clover

Had always assumed that the grade separator at Kathipara was a proper, fully-paid up member of the four-leafed clover interchange club. Not that it was difficult to validate this assumption, but for some reason, never did think about it being anything other.

Even after having taken this picture, I was searching for the fourth leaf; it took me a while to accept there are only three of them. Even as the effect of this bit of news was being absobed, came another bolt from the blue. Apparently, only 4-leaf grade separators can truly be called "clover-leaf intersections". Anything less, and we need to talk about "jughandle intersections" or "par-clo" (for partial cloverleaf).

Anything more, it would be a spaghetti junction, apparently!



A-ha, it is a clover-leaf after all, just that one of the leaves seems to have fallen off.... see comments!

4 comments:

Ratzzz said...

hey Shanta, i am not sure if u observed properly.

take a look here http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomsurfer/4795308081/

Shantaram said...

@Ratzzz: You're right... the on-ramp towards Porur is much longer than the other leaves.... So that's a trick picture!

Ratzzz said...

oi uncle...

as per the following links, Kathipara is the largest clover leaf bridge.. and each loop is 180 meters equally. so no trick shot :|

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathipara_Junction

http://excusemeworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/kathipara.jpg

Shantaram said...

@Ratzzz: "and each loop is 180 meters equally" - does not prove that the loops themselves are equal; an ellipse can have the same circumference as a circle. As for the "largest clover leaf bridge" - What a hoot! :)