That was also how many years ago now? Everything changes. The point I made was that the asphalt formulation you grew up with is nothing like what is being used today.
Regardless of maintenance costs, concrete costs orders of magnitude more money to initially install than asphalt. That alone drives municipalities to use asphalt. Then, when it does need refurbishment or replacement, asphalt is much less expensive to remove and replace. They regularly run those grinding machines down the freeway and save the material to be used again. They can do miles in a day. It could last only a couple of years and still be less expensive than concrete.
Around this side of the state at least, frost heaves do a lot of damage. The areas with concrete do not weather that situation as well as asphalt eitherâŠ
That hasnât changed 
but now they just keep slapping patches over patches. Some stretches of my commute were like 4 wheeling in the Rockies! 
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10 years ago, I was one of our towns budget committee. Paving is one of our biggest expenses. And believe it or not the amount of paving we do each year hasnât changed in the 30 years prior to when I was a selectman. Costs had gone up significantly. And even though traffic has drastically increased on our larger town roads we weâve still been resurfacing them on the same schedule. I donât know about the state roads that pass through our town which the state is responsible for.
Hmm, driving 20 MPH on a gravel road is better than paying a company to pave the road, got it. Therefore Dwight Eisenhower was wrong.
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People get to choose in Vermont; many have chosen to revert roads to gravel.
No slight on Dwight, but the movement to build the interstates was in the works for years before his presidency. He was amenable to it, because he saw Germanyâs highways and commanded a platoon to cross the US after WW1, saw how bad ours were.
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Who among us here suggested that?
Nobody I saw.
In my town, weâve just been less proactive about re-paving due to costs. Thereâs a lot more tar applied to cracks, patching and other preventive maintenance being done to stretch the timeline for re-paving. The road agent is one job I would never want in town. Too much flak about everything. Big expense lately has been replacing culverts- the big ones streams and brooks run through. They also get blocked by beavers on a regular basis despite the design measures for discouraging them.
The state painted the highway through town on a day where rain was expected and happened. What a disaster. It took the better part of 5 years for that mess to fade enough it doesnât look like such a mess.
Letâs see, we have a poster suggesting paved roads are a jobs program. We have a poster that advocates for driving too slow for conditions.
As far as Eisenhower, he noted the need for improved transcontinental roads in 1919.
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Asphalt road surfaces do demand more labor for upkeep, vs. concrete or bituminous.
If obeying posted speed limits, in a safe manner (keep right where applicable), âdriving too slow for conditionsâ, that is not the obeyerâs problem.
Whatâs the difference between asphalt and bituminous? Theyâre the same thing as far as I can tell.
Asphalt is a mixture of aggregate, sand, and bitumen binder. Bituminous is bitumen. IMO the aggregate and sand make asphalt a much more resilient surface than binder only.
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Well, thatâs the opposite of what heâs saying.
From what I understand, asphalt can also be called bituminous concrete.
So whatâs the difference between the two? Well-designed asphalt lasts as long as concrete.
But he implemented plans already in place, not to slight his contribution, but it took people who understood the problem and had thought about how to deal with it.