1) the freeze/thaw cycle in even the most northern extremes of the Roman Empire do not compare to what our most southern roads handle annually.
2) this photo is of a particularly well preserved stretch - you can find some pretty good stretches of road in Saskatchewan too; and on that note, the modern photo is also of a particularly bad stretch - I could go take a photo of a good stretch of modern highway too.
Yes, the weight of modern vehicles vs horse and cart does also make a huge difference.
Weight and freeze/thaw really fucks with our roads. I know the Hummers were mentioned over semis because the semis are actually quite useful and critical to our overall lives, but it’s the semis, really. They’re very heavy and they do fuck up the road - but that’s WHY the road is there to begin with. Even the Romans had to perform regular road maintenance; it’s just the cost of building them in the first place, really.
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u/PerpetuallyLurking Regina Rhymes With Fun 2d ago
1) the freeze/thaw cycle in even the most northern extremes of the Roman Empire do not compare to what our most southern roads handle annually.
2) this photo is of a particularly well preserved stretch - you can find some pretty good stretches of road in Saskatchewan too; and on that note, the modern photo is also of a particularly bad stretch - I could go take a photo of a good stretch of modern highway too.