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In Babylon about 615 bc the Chaldeans connected the city's temples to the. The greatest systematic road builders of the ancient world were the Romans, who. Impossible to use expensive materials for long lengths of road construction. This page explains the steps in a typical building-or rebuilding-project. PHASE I: Planning MDOT construction workers going over plans. A road project begins.
Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription.The first half of this article traces the history of roads from earliest times to the present, exploring the factors that have influenced their development and suggesting that in many ways roads have directly reflected the conditions and attitudes of their times. The road is thus one of the oldest continuous and traceable for civilization and society. The second half of the article explains the factors behind the design, and operation of a modern road. It is shown that a road must interact closely and carefully with the terrain and through which it passes, with changing vehicle, with information technologies, and with the various abilities, deficiencies, and frailties of the individual driver.
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History Roads of antiquity Ancient roads of the Mediterranean and Middle EastThe first roads were paths made by animals and later adapted by humans. The earliest records of such paths have been found around some springs near Jericho and date from about 6000 bc. The first indications of constructed roads date from about 4000 bc and consist of stone-paved streets at in modern-day Iraq and timber roads preserved in a swamp in, England. During the, the availability of metal tools made the construction of stone paving more feasible; at the same time, demand for paved roads rose with the use of wheeled vehicles, which were well established by 2000 bc. Cretan roadsAt about this time the Minoans on the island of built a 30-mile (50-kilometre) road from Gortyna on the south coast over the mountains at an elevation of about 4,300 feet (1,300 metres) to Knossos on the north coast. Constructed of layers of stone, the roadway took account of the necessity of drainage by a crown throughout its length and even gutters along certain sections.
The pavement, which was about 12 feet (360 centimetres) wide, consisted of sandstone bound by a clay-gypsum mortar. The surface of the central portion consisted of two rows of basalt slabs 2 inches (50 millimetres) thick. The centre of the roadway seems to have been used for foot traffic and the edges for animals and carts.
It is the oldest existing paved road. Roads of and BabylonThe earliest long-distance road was a 1,500-mile route between the and the. It came into some use about 3500 bc, but it was operated in an organized way only from about 1200 bc by the Assyrians, who used it to join Susa, near the Persian Gulf, to the Mediterranean ports of Smyrna (İzmir) and Ephesus. More a track than a constructed road, the route was duplicated between 550 and 486 bc by the great Persian kings and in their famous Royal Road. Like its predecessor, the began at Susa, wound northwestward to Arbela, and thence proceeded westward through Nineveh to Harran, a major road junction and caravan centre.
The main road then continued to twin termini at Smyrna and Ephesus. The Greek historian, writing about 475 bc, put the time for the journey from Susa to Ephesus at 93 days, although royal riders the route in 20 days.In about 615 bc the connected the city’s temples to the royal palaces with the, a major road in which burned bricks and carefully shaped stones were laid in bituminous mortar.Herodotus credits the Egyptians with building their first roads to provide a solid track upon which to haul the immense limestone blocks used in the pyramids, and archaeological evidence indicates that such road building took place southwest of Cairo between 2600 and 2200 bc. The wheel arrived in Egypt at the relatively late date of about 1600 bc. There is little evidence of street surfacing in ancient Egyptian towns, though there is evidence of the use of paved processional roads leading to the temples.
The ancient travel routes of Egypt ran from Thebes and Coptos on the central Nile east to the and from Memphis (Cairo) across the to.The early Greeks depended primarily on sea travel. There is evidence of the building of special roads for religious purposes and transport about 800 bc, but there is little evidence of substantial road building for travel and transport prior to the Roman system. The Greeks did build a few ceremonial, or “sacred,” roads, paved with shaped stone and containing wheel ruts about 55 inches (140 centimetres) apart. Ancient roads of TheDuring the 2nd millennium bc, trade ways developed in Europe. One route, for example, ran between Italy and Spain via Marseille and nearby Heraclea, close to present-day Avignon, France. Such ways were used for the movement of flints from Denmark, freestone from Belgium, salt from Austria, lead and tin from England, and amber from northern Europe.
By about 1500 bc many of the ways in eastern and central Europe had linked together into an extensive trading network known as the Amber Routes. Four routes have been identified, the first from modern Hamburg, Germany, southwestward by dual routes through Cologne and Frankfurt to Lyon and Marseille. The second also passed from Hamburg south to Passau on the Danube and then through the to Venice. The third began at Samland on the East Prussian coast (where amber is still found), crossed the at Thorn, and thence continued southeastward through the Moravian Gate to Aquileia on the Adriatic.
The fourth, the Baltic-Pontus road, followed the main eastern rivers, the Vistula, Saw, Sereth, Prut, Bug, and Dnieper.While the Amber Routes were not roads in the modern sense, they were improved at river crossings, over mountain passes, and across wet and swampy areas. A few remnants of these roads survive today.
They were constructed by laying two or three strings of in the direction of the road on a bed of branches and boughs up to 20 feet (6 metres) wide. This layer was then covered with a layer of transverse logs 9 to 12 feet in length laid side by side. In the best log roads, every fifth or sixth log was fastened to the underlying subsoil with pegs. There is evidence that the older log roads were built prior to 1500 bc. They were maintained in a level state by being covered with sand and gravel or sod.
In addition, the Romans used side ditches to reduce the moisture content and increase the. TheThe greatest systematic road builders of the ancient world were the Romans, who were very conscious of the military, economic, and administrative advantages of a good road system.
The Romans drew their expertise mainly from the —particularly in cement technology and street paving—though they probably also learned skills from the Greeks (masonry), Cretans, Carthaginians (pavement structure), Phoenicians, and Egyptians (surveying). Made from cement was a major development that permitted many of Rome’s construction advances.The Romans began their road-making task in 334 bc and by the peak of the empire had built nearly 53,000 miles of road connecting their capital with the frontiers of their far-flung empire.
Twenty-nine great military roads, the viae militares, radiated from Rome. The most famous of these was the. Begun in 312 bc, this road eventually followed the Mediterranean coast south to Capua and then turned eastward to Beneventum, where it divided into two branches, both reaching Brundisium (Brindisi). From Brundisium the Appian Way traversed the Adriatic coast to Hydruntum, a total of 410 miles from Rome.The typical Roman road was bold in and construction. Where possible, it was built in a straight line from one sighting point to the next, regardless of obstacles, and was carried over marshes, lakes, ravines, and mountains. In its highest stage of development, it was constructed by excavating parallel trenches about 40 feet apart to provide longitudinal —a hallmark of Roman road engineering. The foundation was then raised about three feet above ground level, employing material taken from the drains and from the adjacent cleared ground.
As the importance of the road increased, this embankment was progressively covered with a light bedding of sand or mortar on which four main courses were constructed: (1) the statumen layer 10 to 24 inches (250 to 600 millimetres) thick, composed of stones at least 2 inches in size, (2) the rudus, a 9-inch-thick layer of concrete made from stones under 2 inches in size, (3) the nucleus layer, about 12 inches thick, using concrete made from small gravel and coarse sand, and, for very important roads, (4) the summum dorsum, a wearing surface of large stone slabs at least 6 inches deep. The total thickness thus varied from 3 to 6 feet. The width of the Appian Way in its ultimate development was 35 feet. The two-way, heavily crowned central carriageway was 15 feet wide. On each side it was flanked by curbs 2 feet wide and 18 inches high and paralleled by one-way side lanes 7 feet wide.
This massive Roman road section, adopted about 300 bc, set the standard of practice for the next 2,000 years. Robert Bulkley of Ohio, with a map of a proposed federal network that was a precursor to the U.S.
Interstate Highway System, February 1938. Harris & Ewing Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
(LC-DIG-hec-24067) TheWhile the British recognized the necessity for national support of highways and a national system as early as 1878, it was the Ministry of Transport Act of 1919 that first classified the roadway system into 23,230 miles of Class I roads and 14,737 miles of Class II roads. Fifty percent of the cost of Class I roads and 25 percent of the cost of Class II roads were to be borne by the national government. In the mid-1930s the need for a national through-traffic system was recognized, and the Trunk Roads Act of 1939, followed by the Trunk Roads Act of 1944, created a system of roadways for through traffic.
The of 1949 authorized existing or new roads to be classified as “motorways” that could be reserved for special classes of traffic. The Highways Act of 1959 swept away all previous highway legislation in England and Wales and replaced it with a set of new laws.
The andThe mammoth U.S. (formally, the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways) developed in response to strong public pressures in the 1950s for a better road system. These pressures culminated in the establishment by President of the Clay Committee in 1954.
Following this committee’s recommendations, the and the Highway Revenue Act of 1956 provided funding for an accelerated program of construction. A federal gasoline tax was established, the funds from which, with other highway-user payments, were placed in a Highway Trust Fund. The federal-state ratio for funding construction of the Interstate System was changed to 90 percent federal and 10 percent state.
It was expected that the system would be completed no later than 1971, but cost increases and planning delays extended this time by some 25 years. The system grew to a total length of more than 45,000 miles, connecting nearly all the major cities in the United States and carrying more than 20 percent of the nation’s traffic on slightly more than 1 percent of the total road and street system.The Canadian Highway Act of 1919 provided for a system of 40,000 kilometres (25,000 miles) of highways and provided for a federal allotment for construction not to exceed 40 percent of the cost. By the end of the century, more than 134,000 kilometres (83,000 miles) of highway had been built, of which approximately 16,000 kilometres (9,900 miles) were freeway.
From plans to pavement: How a road is builtMichigan is a national leader in road building; the state boasts the nation's first mile of rural concrete and many other landmark 'firsts.' Thanks to this long history, our highways and bridges are some of the oldest in the nation. Many have outlived their design life and are due for. How can this project be designed to be an asset to the community?Money for road projects comes from gas taxes. Michigan drivers pay 19 cents per gallon in state taxes and 18.4 cents per gallon in federal gas tax.
The tax on diesel fuel is 15 cents per gallon. The federal share of gas taxes is passed to the federal government, which distributes it through many programs.
Until recently, Michigan received only 90.5 cents for every dollar in gas taxes sent to Washington. New legislation will increase Michigan's return from 90.5 cents to 92 cents on the dollar between 2005 and 2009.PHASE II: Design:A survey of the area is step two. Recently, Global Positioning Systems, laser surveys, and other technology have sped up the process and improved accuracy. Many factors influence designs, including. Effects on the environment or nearby residents.With a design in hand, MDOT advertises for a contractor to do the actual building. MDOT awards contracts based on low bid price.PHASE III: EarthworkWith a contractor on board, earthwork can begin.
Earthwork is one of the most important elements in road construction because it establishes a stable foundation. A roadway with a substandard foundation will fail prematurely. That is why the road's base layers are as important as the finished surface. Concrete uses cement and water as the glue between sand and crushed rock. Workers place concrete into steel molds called forms.A finishing machine vibrates and trims it to the necessary height. To prevent cracks, workers cut joints between the concrete slabs.
At each joint, wire baskets and steel connect the slabs. These allow the slabs to expand and contract as the temperature changes. The slabs can slide from side to side along the dowels, but not up and down.Modern paving equipment can insert as the concrete is poured, then immediately the concrete.PHASE V: Open to TrafficWith the new surface in place, MDOT orders ride quality testing.
Testers use seismology equipment to measure vibrations of the new pavement. It there is too much vibration, the contractor must grind the pavement to ensure a smooth surface.The final steps are:.
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