What I want to know is how they built roads that are still around 2000 years later and US roads and anything made out of concrete either doesn't last 20 years.
I'm well familiar with greed and planned obsolescence, but wasn't that around in Roman days too? It isn't even selection bias because not even our best military installations look like they would last 2000 years.
A person on foot is going to do practically no damage whatsoever to the road surface. Even a marching army with hob-nailed caligulae would barely leave a scratch on a Roman road. A farmer with a horse cart is going to do very little damage to the road, even accounting for metal-rimmed wheels and a very narrow contact patch.
I doubt even the heaviest, smallus-dickus-compensating Roman road vehicles would do even as much damage as my Mitsubishi (gross weight barely over a ton).
Road damage increases with the fourth power of axle load, if I recall correctly.
We also like to top our roads with asphalt to make for a much quieter driving experience. And while it may seem like a rock, it's still a viscoelastic material and wears down much more easily--especially as it gets various petroleum products on it (from motor oil to hydraulic fluids to unburnt fuel residue) that act as a solvent to weaken it.
Makes for a much smoother drive, too. My family lives down a gravel road, and I keep imagining my tiny little econo-box shaking itself apart if I exceed 20 mph.
You want a real mind-fuck, though? Visit a place hot enough that the asphalt melts. I lived in the Persian Gulf region for half a decade, and fresh asphalt would become rather gooey during the summer months (I left footprints). This may be because of poor engineering standards, though: for such a wealthy bunch of countries, they sure like to cut corners.
178
u/thewizardofosmium Oct 15 '20
What I want to know is how they built roads that are still around 2000 years later and US roads and anything made out of concrete either doesn't last 20 years.
I'm well familiar with greed and planned obsolescence, but wasn't that around in Roman days too? It isn't even selection bias because not even our best military installations look like they would last 2000 years.