Team-BHP - Concrete Roads vs Asphalt Roads | Understanding the pros & cons

My take, if you compare the best of both lots i.e. we get the best workmanship on both sides, asphalt would beat concrete. (Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai is asphalt I think and very well built - heard it cost them in multiples of other roads when they did it).

Since we would normally not get the best of the world, given the kind of workmanship (someone mentioned corruption), not necessarily the worst of the lot, but still far away from the best, I would prefer concrete over asphalt. Atleast, we have a compromised road for 5-7 years before repairs kick in (concrete), as compared to road for 6-9 months and repair work for 3 months every year (asphalt) !! ROFL!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yusha (Post 5060266)

Concrete roads do not have steel rebars. The steel rod you see protruding out of the side is provided for expansion and is known as a dowel. They will put a round plastic sleeve when they cast the other slab and the steel bar is inserted in the plastic sleeve which allows for movement.

Some of the road work that I see here in Mumbai has a full steel grid reinforcement across the road, kind of like a slab in a building.

I have felt palm beach road in Navi Mumbai has one of the better asphalt surfaces, in appearance, execution and also durability. A pleasure to travel on whether on 2 wheels or 4, rain or sun, I do not recall spotting that many potholes in my 6 years of driving along that stretch.

Excellent asphalt highways provide such a refined driving experience, that my same (old) car felt more upmarket (NVH) compared to my habituated runs along the concrete Mumbai Pune Expressway. Monsoon drives along fast concrete sections are not at all confidence inspiring

Asphalt is the most recycled material in the world. Replacing that with something like concrete is criminal. Concrete cant be recycled. After it ages, it will have to be dug up and dumped somewhere. Asphalt can be endlessly re-used

My vote goes for asphalt roads. I hate the bumpiness, unevenness, color and the tyre noise from concrete roads. Braking, cornering does not inspire confidence and it tends to heat up more when compared to an asphalt road. My rides / drives have not been reassuring on concrete roads. If there was some way to get the best of both worlds.

Take a 2 wheeler and try riding on a concrete road which has some gravel on it. Next, apply brakes aggressively :D the experience might be smoother than a well greased bearing followed by a fall on the hard concrete! This imaginary nightmare is sufficient to drive me towards asphalt.

Asphalt roads always seem to have a slight curve in the section vs flat sections on cement roads. Result - the asphalt roads tend to be cleaner usually.

I would prefer Asphalt for sure. Many here have commented on the smoothness of the ride and the longevity of the roads.

I was once travelling to Mumbai from Pune almost 10 years back when I met a French lady who was in India for research. She was part of environment committee or organization.

She made a few interesting observations
1. Concrete roads are re-inforced so they use much more material than regular asphalt roads. This leads to a lot of pollution from mining point of view.
2. Since these roads are re-inforced with iron bars, they work like a heat sink. For hot countries like India, concrete roads absorb heat all day long and release it during night time. This causes the local area to stay warm for longer contributing to heat
3. Concrete road also take up lot of water to build compared to asphalt roads.

All in all concrete has more environment damage than the benefits they bring. This is off course in theory wherein the asphalt roads are laid without corruption.

I prefer the Asphalt for its smooth ride, but till the date we have proper engineers and contractors to lay them and work on them concrete is better.

Even though the ride on concrete is rough, it does not age fast and get destroyed by rain.

Second thing is what vehicle we are driving. In my Polo and Ecosport concrete is rough and the surface is noticeable, but in my Terrano the taller side walls see to it that the difference in ride is not much.

Rahul

While every driving enthusiast will love asphalt and detest cement roads, In India the quality and construction of asphalt roads is just subpar. I would rather drive on a cement road in newer areas than keep a constant vigil for potholes on asphalt roads. The repairs or "patches" also completely ruin the road surface. Cement roads are also more reliable in rains compared to asphalt as there is minimum chance of someone disappearing into a pool sized pothole.

As much as I love asphalt roads, it is anytime better to have a concrete road simply because of the reasons explained by senior bhpian V.Narayan. Anyone from Pune who has been using the road from Chandani Chowk towards Mulshi will agree how bad the roads were until recently when they started converting it to concrete. These contractors ensure that their own version of 'Rajiv Gandhi Rojgaar yojana' continues with these tar roads getting damaged in rains or due bad quality of work and then relaid again.

On a different note, my experience with a stretch of concrete road on Mumbai - Goa (coastal) highway has been excellent. The road was too smooth, almost felt like asphalt.

Though I like freshly laid asphalt roads to drive on.. Its a nightmare to live in an area where there are asphalt road. Just one monsoon and there are potholes the size of craters. Where I stay, there is a lot of truck traffic and asphalt road get in a worse condition with in a month. Hence voted for concerete.. though they are pain to drive interms of road noise, atleast you can maintain a decent speed and not stop at every pothole.

Voted : Asphalt.

The problem in India is Leveling & Carpeting. Most of the contractors use primitive methods and end up with un-leveled roads be it concrete or asphalt.

However, the major problem with concrete is that it does not absorb heat the way asphalt road does, which in turns leads to overheating of tyres and ultimately tyre burst since increase of temperature leads to hot air expansion and occupying more space inside the tyre.

Why can't we put a thin layer of asphalt on top of concrete toads. An inch or two of asphalt could smoothen the ride. Just thought. Apart from extra cost I don't see any flipside to this.Am I right?If not, would like to be corrected.

Voted for asphalt road because it offers better grip, smoother ride and low noise. I dislike concrete roads for exactly opposite characteristics properties. It is slightly slippery when wet and extremely noisy. In Delhi there are some roads which transition from concrete to asphalt: you can immediately feel huge difference in road/ tyre noise.

Lovely Thread! Truly patches a true driving enthusiast to leave a message here.

Asphalt probably are the nicer roads to drive on though the impact in its existence only causes more and more need of it being repaired.. the shift to make some of our roads within city limits into concrete ones is definitely a good move!

Someone very straightforward stated that asphalt are for the ones who enjoy the road and concrete roads are for the ones who use it on a daily basis to get around.

Maybe that’s why our high ways are not being proposed to be made into concrete (as yet) so that we enjoy our road trips!