"joe" writes:
> Daniel Barlow wrote:
>
>> "joe" writes:
>>
>> > Face it, if not for motorised vehicles, there would be no roads at
>> > all, just dirt tracks.
>>
>> Interesting. I'd never realised the Roman Empire had motorised
>> vehicles.
>
> They didn't. They used dirt tracks, not surfaced roads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_roads - doesn't look like a dirt
track to me.
" The flat surface was then the pavimentum. It could be used as the
" road, or additional layers could be constructed. A statumen or
" "foundation" of flat stones set in cement might support the additional
" layers.
" The final steps utilized concrete, which the Romans had exclusively
" rediscovered. They seem to have mixed the mortar and the stones in the
" fossa. First a several-inch layer of coarse concrete, the rudus, then
" a several-inch layer of fine concrete, the nucleus, went onto the
" pavement or statumen. Into or onto the nucleus went a course of
" polygonal or square paving stones, such as you see in the picture,
" called the summa crusta. The crusta was crowned for drainage.
If you don't trust Wikipedia, the Encyclopaedia Brittanica makes a
similar claim for the use of concrete.
-dan |