Why is it so expensive and is there an alternative out there that won’t break so easily especially in the winter? My state is spending like a billion dollars a year on roads that they’ll probably have to fix in 5 years, it really seems like a huge waste of money.

Good Public transportation would fix a lot of these costs I know but what other road materials/solutions are out there?

Thank you for the answers and for putting up with my follow up questions. I’m learning a lot!

  • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    asphalt is cheap (and flashy) part of road construction, the really important, expensive, non-flashy and prone to corner cutting part is building solid, thick, high-quality layer of aggregate underneath. if you don’t have that, no matter how many layers of asphalt you slap on top it will break every winter

    this is an instance of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

      • Maxnmy's@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I’m not a road enthusiast but I want to point out that such large cobblestones with irregular surfaces and gaps in between may not be optimal for heavy trucks going across them at over 100 km/h.