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!
It is expensive because the public won’t allow closing lanes to fix it.
Right not, concrete has a longer life span but repairs take longer even if you use High Early Strength concrete. Asphalt fails earlier, but repairs generally happen far quicker.
Nothing else competes against those two. Most research is to extend the lives of either.
Concrete done right has a far longer life span. We have a few concrete roads that just fall apart at the seams every time they are redone at certain intersections. I would bet they are either rushed to try and keep the intersection closed for as short as possible, done by the lowest bidder who didn’t budget to do it right, or the intersection has such a shitty foundation/drainage that anything on top of it is going to fail.
Other roads that seem to have just as much traffic have held up fine for decades.
Is it the public, or is the overall system designed in a way that it cannot be effeciently maintained?
A water pumping station has alternative pumps if one needs to be repaired or replaced, most main roads run at such capacity that one road closure stresses the entire system in the area to the point of failure.