A farm can get by with a gravel road because travel is low. My daughter’s Gma in law owns a farm and their long driveway is gravel. Every few years (maybe 10) they level it and put down new gravel. She drives a nice Lexus LS460. It isn’t a classic car with a low chassis and a reasonably level gravel driveway is fine. The farm roads behind the house are all dirt and that’s no problem for the tractor.
I’ve heard of mud season there, but I didn’t realize it was apparently as bad as shown in the pictures here:
This looks like a nightmare for those of us who keep our cars very clean!
OK, I was a little rash with tat statement. Romans built a lot of roads, but mostly with one of three distinct methods. The roads built for the military, that have survived and still exist and are used today were made with Roman Concrete.
Except for the dirt roads, stones were used. Even the military roads had a deep layer of rocks in the base layers and stones are used in the aggregate.
The Roman Concrete is not only stronger than modern concrete, it is also self healing. Cracks repair themselves. The disadvantage is that it takes several months to fully cure, but it can cure under water, even under salt water.
It was mostly used in buildings, especially building near the ocean. The buildings had to be made thicker because until it fully cured, it needed to be thicker so as to not fail under load.
A version of Roman Concrete using coal ash is being looked at today because it emits far less carbon into the atmosphere. Coal ash is a waste product so this would help solve two environmental problems at once.
BTW, I have traveled on the Via Appia in Rome. Still original and still in use.
I recall reading some articles not too long ago in this regard and since this topic came up, went back and looked- interesting reading:
That’s Vermont all right. So few people, so many opinions. But you can’t argue with the frost line. If anyone can invent a way to keep water from expanding as it freezes we’ll have something to discuss.
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I’m sure a computer model will be forthcoming with just that. Interesting new book out.
We’re working on the not-freezing part.