concrete -vs- asphalt roads

Which is better and why?

Concrete is strong but it's prone to cracks. Asphalt is not as durable but it's easier to fix.

Asphalt to ME seems smoother to drive on.

Even NEW concrete construction around here seems rough as a cob by comparison.

As to which is better... might do to ask which is cheaper!

See my most recent post in that OTHER thread. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Cost is a definite consideration. I am betting asphalt is cheaper to build with and cheaper to maintain.

You can get concrete in many colors... but not usually for roads. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Ashphalt is smoother to drive on (for electric wheelchair wheels anyway) when it's new, but gets potholes and other horse puckey in it faster than concrete.
Concrete is a bit rougher initially, but probably lasts longer.

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IlluminatingBikr said:
You can get concrete in many colors... but not usually for roads. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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OOOOOOOOO!! Wouldn't the world be a much happier place if we drove around on <font color="fuchsia">FUCHSIA</font> roads?!?! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

I prefer gravel... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

The "Best" is probably what they do around here when they do what is refered to as a "Legal" road

12" of rolled, compacted gravel, mixed size from about 3" to fines. Top with 6" of "blue stone" concrete, let cure 30 days, and then 2" of asphalt on top. Smooth, and lasts a long time - until some idiot company cuts it to do a repair under it, and does a half-assed patch

I drove on the "oil roads" in Canada. Not all that bad and fairly smooth.

What is that red stuff in Texas?

Just pricing for a driveway, I found asphalt to be 1/2 the price of concrete. Pavers were double the price of concrete.

Concrete will outlast asphalt x2 or more if both are properly done. A good asphalt job will outlast a poor concrete job, and vice versa.

Concrete is stronger, asphalt is more flexible. Asphalt can be seamless, concrete requires "expansion" joints to allow for the movement of the ground beneath it.

Concrete handles freeze/thaw cycles much better than asphalt as long as the surface is in good shape. Once it starts to go it falls apart as fast as asphalt, but it often takes years for that to happen. My road was replaced last year (asphalt) and didn't last through spring before the potholes* appeared.

Asphalt gets soft in the hot sun. (learned this the hard way)

Concrete can be poured any time of the year, in the northern half of the country, asphalt plants close down for the winter. The cooler the weather, the closer you have to be to the asphalt plant.

The surface of concrete can be textured from glass-smooth to looking like loose rocks.

I don't think you can really say one is "better" than the other overall, it's more location/application-specific. But towns switched to asphalt because it's cheaper. It can also be recycled over and over again. I suppose you could sort of recycle concrete, but you'd have to break it up into little chunks and take out the rebar.

FWIW, we have a machine here that they drive down the road that is almost like a Zamboni for asphalt. Rips it up, then grinds it up, puts it back down, compacts it, then covers it with fresh rolled asphalt in one pass. Goes about 2 MPH (guessed) and requires dump trucks filled with fresh black stuff to keep refilling the back end of it. Fascinating to watch, but it's noisy, dusty, and stinks.


*I am sure someone from the south is going to ask what a pothole is. New Yorkers will answer that question with a string of profanities /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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Dave, you don't know how much I want to put something controversial in here just because of why you started it!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

gravels much more fun to drive on when you have an old plymouth grand fury... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

i think for driveways, i would prefer concrete, and for roads, i would prefer asphalt. so long as it can be properly maintained.

any chance we could use that stuff they have on tennis courts? that stuff would be very smooth to drive on!
and probably ensure better traction (again...a very good thing when you drive an 86 grand fury...)

I'd say concrete roads are "better" for the usual definition of better. They give better traction and better visibility at night. To put it another way, you go faster on concrete roads.

Over in M'sia, it doesn't matter what the roads are made out of, the Works dept repaves a street, then the next day the Utility guys come and dig up a stretch diagonally across the street to lay their cables. They then 'attempt' to re-pave it themselves, but its never the same... talk about lack of communications huh? Sad to say but its happened 4 out of 5 times and I've seen it myself too most times too!!

Roth, when I lived in NJ they were trying out some "recycled road" materials, and one that I really liked was made of gravel from old asphalt roadway, chopped rubber tire, and crushed glass. It was super smooth to drive on, had good dry traction (rubber) and good wet traction (glass) but didn't wear well at all. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Seems like we'd be able to come up with something better than the same roadway surfaces we've been using for over 100 years doesn't it ...

Stanley, it's not lack of communication. The heavy equipment, compaction, shifting, etc. used in building the roadway would destroy many of the undergrounded utilities, so instead of the utility putting in cable, pipe, or whatever, having the roadway construction destroy it, then digging it up and replacing it, they wait 'til all the heavy stuff has gone away then open a trench, drop in their stuff and patch it. Cheaper all the way around IF they close up properly.

Ensuring a proper closure is up to the municipality that controls the roadway, and that often means that no one realy cares 'cause it's "not my job."

The only place I lived where the road patches were done to spec was one small town who's mayor used to do road construction ... he managed to get a city law passed that before a utility (or any private party) could dig up a public right-of-way, an amount equal to the city repairing the cut to full city spec had to be put into an interest bearing escrow account, or bonded in some way.

That amount was kept set aside for repair of the patched cut for the projected "life" of the road until resurfacing (generally several years).

If the patch survived as well as the rest of the road and didn't need additional work in that time, they got their money, with interest, back. If repair of the patch was needed, it was charged to the set aside amount until it ran out, then the utility was billed for any further repairs needed.

Amazingly, after the first few screwups, the patches started to be done properly and lasted as long as the rest of the roadway ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif It proved the mayor's point that if done right there was no problem.

(I worked for a utility at the time, and our construction guys hated it - they had to be extra careful to do the job right or it would come back and bite the company, who in turn was likely to bite them if it happened too many times ... Eventually we ended up having an outside professional road building crew do our closings and that worked out much better for everyone. No, it wasn't the mayor's old company /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif )

Around here they lay a concrete base with an asphalt top. Then every few years they redo the asphalt covering. I have to drive through PA to get to my parents and they lay concrete and let it dry for a few weeks then take a big saw and cut across it every few feet. Then the concrete shifts a little bit and you get a constand bump bump bump bump. I had a portable cd player that sat on my seat and played through a casette adapter. I took my truck off road on a mountain in WV and it never skipped. Drive on a PA highway and it skips. I made the mistake of owning a minivan once and even with brand new shocks it would start rocking and make you seasick.

Back just before the middle of the last century the county I lived in (Camden County, NJ), laid some "Automatic Gravel" roads through the boonies. The contractors laid "2 & 2-20s Jersey mix" roadways (that's 2 bags portlant cement, 20 bags dirty pebbles and 20 bags silty sand, great stuff). As soon as the check cleared they, and some of the inspectors, split for Florida and the roads broke up into loose dusty gravel. Luckily the local earl refineries just happened to have lots of asphalt on hand and the old road bed worked fine for a MacAdam surface.