Let’s not mix up people with materials. Asphalt, the more common product used for paving roads in the US is a petroleum product, therefore having the forces of the oil industry promoting its usage. Concrete, a more durable product, is expensive. Cobblestone, in places that still have it, are still in relatively good shape, although cobblestone does not provide a smooth ride. Can’t speak to the expense of cobblestone other than it’s more labor intensive, although technology has ways of changing that.
Knowing this, slave labor can make cobblestone more cost effective, if you’re into that thing. Also, I do not believe I’ve ever seen a cobblestone road buckle in extreme conditions.
Anyway… Roman streets looking this good were maintained in the intervening years (which is possible for asphalt roads, too) – or were just recently dug out again. Otherwise you’d see tracks from all the wheels traveling over it in the last 2000 years.
Also those streets weren’t designed for thousands of multi-ton vehicles driving over them with 30 miles an hour for residential streets and even harsher conditions between cities.
But every street needs maintenance. Potholes are what happens if that isn’t done.
How many 4,000+-year-old Romans are wanting to immigrate?
Let’s not mix up people with materials. Asphalt, the more common product used for paving roads in the US is a petroleum product, therefore having the forces of the oil industry promoting its usage. Concrete, a more durable product, is expensive. Cobblestone, in places that still have it, are still in relatively good shape, although cobblestone does not provide a smooth ride. Can’t speak to the expense of cobblestone other than it’s more labor intensive, although technology has ways of changing that.
Knowing this, slave labor can make cobblestone more cost effective, if you’re into that thing. Also, I do not believe I’ve ever seen a cobblestone road buckle in extreme conditions.
Romans 4000 years ago?
Anyway… Roman streets looking this good were maintained in the intervening years (which is possible for asphalt roads, too) – or were just recently dug out again. Otherwise you’d see tracks from all the wheels traveling over it in the last 2000 years.
Also those streets weren’t designed for thousands of multi-ton vehicles driving over them with 30 miles an hour for residential streets and even harsher conditions between cities.
But every street needs maintenance. Potholes are what happens if that isn’t done.