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-   -   Concrete Roads vs Asphalt Roads | Understanding the pros & cons (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/236691-concrete-roads-vs-asphalt-roads-understanding-pros-cons-7.html)

Potholes are a result of a shoddy job and not a drawback of asphalt.

Concrete to me is just plain dangerous. Just yesterday saw a couple of two-wheelers skid and fall post the rains.

This is my first post on TBHP! :Cheering:

My vote goes for asphalt for highways and concrete for city roads.

The undulations between the slabs of two lanes on concrete roads with poor banking are big no no. They simply can't beat the smooth and relatively noise free ride of well laid asphalt roads. Also, they tend to wear out tyres quicker.


As far as I understand, concrete requires those expansion joints to prevent them from cracking with temperature change. Covering the concrete with asphalt would seal up these joints.

Further, especially on bridges with a poorly made asphalt layer, I see that the the forces of braking by heavy vehicles tends to cause the ashphalt to roll into a uneven lumps, much like soft dough on a rolling pan. These undulations put additional stress on the bridge as heavy vehicles roll in and out of those and is death trap for two wheelers. In this case, the likely cause for the asphalt to soften is the higher temperature of the concrete underneath when compared to conventional foundation.

I think given the magnitude of corruption combined with low quality of work, Concrete Road makes more sense. Even with all the corruption and shoddy work, Concrete roads might last longer. I also think damage to concrete is more visible and not motorable. This might ensure faster repair work.

Having said that NHAI Asphalt Roads are amazing, in some places Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana roads are also amazing and not to mention, TamilNadu State Highways are also amazing.

Only flaw I see with concrete roads now is the skill of road laying companies. There seems to be no concept called Angle of Banking, Water Drainage Systems and nothing called Road Shoulders(its almost a 1 feet step between road and non-road)

Voted for Asphalt, Technology has come a long way and now a days the roads are very smooth and long lasting. Most often I see the local civic bodies digging up the road in the name of development.

Concrete on the other hand makes the drive noisy and bit bumpy as compared to smooth asphalt. Also our govt bodies are known to dig up the road and are not good at planning so most likely white topping will mean more expensive digging up process in the future.

Tar roads for me any day. Concrete roads I have seen only in India, I may be wrong here.

Asphalt/tar do not last long has a different reason in India.

1.Inferior quality of material

2. Faulty unscientific workmanship.

3. Insufficient use of material to increase profit margins.

4. No gutter to drain rain water.

No wonder asphalt roads built in Bhutan by Indian companies last longer than roads in India reason we all know.

Another big reason why asphalt roads break in India is overloaded trucks. They are allowed by collecting small bribe.

Nothing like a well laid out asphalt road with proper white markings on a drizzly day in the hills and a well mannered hatch or sedan! Well, fantasies aside, asphalt road any day over concrete but as most of the bhpians have stated, it needs to be well laid out for the drive experience to be sublime and safety quotient high.

No doubt about it, it has to be asphalt. Tyre noise being the number 1 concern. The tyres don't feel planted well enough as I drive on concrete roads, especially during the rains. And moreover the unevenness is much more felt on the concrete.

You showed the reinforcement bars in one of the pics. For the loads on a road, what is the amount of steel reinforcement required, because the bars in the pic look spaced too far apart (but that could be because only a few are left jutting out). That brings me to my real question - white topping - I don't recall seeing any reinforcement, or is this some new technology?

I remember seeing in US that there is asphalt topping on top of concrete roads. When they relay road surfaces, they don't put new tar/asphalt on top of existing one like they do in some places in India (it has led to weird issues like manholes being like potholes due to putting layer after layer of asphalt in Bangalore). They scrape the top layer of the tar and then apply tar. When the scrape the asphalt layer, it looks like concrete layer below it. So I think they do apply asphalt on top of concrete. Civil engineers, please correct me if I am wrong.

A properly maintained Asphalt road beats any other options handily any day. But given the general lack of seriousness in maintaining any public infrastructure by authorities makes them bad choice for India. Concrete roads, though inferior in quality of driving experience offer much better experience over a longer period of time.

Having said that I have seen many National highways being built in Maharashtra currently use a combination of both which is a better option. The interface of both though leaves a sour taste as they are not perfectly matched in grade and can be a jarring experience particularly in low slung hard suspended cars.

I remember the roads built under Golden quadrilateral scheme had sections of concrete and Asphalt alternating between lanes. Hope authorities learned their lessons well and incorporate the best tech in future projects.

Even in white topping they re-inforce with steel. Since the whole surface is resting on ground, the re-inforcement is sufficient.

On highways, its done similarly, they scrape the loosened surface and re-lay the road. I have seen it on NH4. Its recommended to be done this way everywhere in India. But then it needs the complete road from layers underneath to be done properly. Even for potholes, they need to cut the hole with clean edges and then fill it. They dont do that either. Who cares :Frustrati

Any pics of the steel reinforcement in the white topping on Bengaluru roads. I have never chanced upon any section where I could see the reinforcement. I also read somewhere that they use fiber (glass?) mixed with the cement instead of steel.

Voted for Asphalt Roads if and only if they are maintained well. The road noise is reduced and there are no joints like the ones in the concrete roads. I almost wait for the Mumbai Pune Expressway to end and the silent section to begin at Dehu Road.

I have seen it everywhere. I will post the pics when I come across one on this thread. I have read about mixing fibres (even jute fibres in asphalt) to increase the cohesiveness in building materials but not in these roads.

It is actually a choice between heart & mind.
A choice between dream/ideal condition & reality/practicality.

Heart says floor that A-pedal on a smoothly laid black tarmac.
Then you feel a big thud of a pothole on tarmac road & you meet reality to shift to concrete roads.
Thats reality, thats life, atleast here in India.
Reasons could be poor shoddy work on tarmac roads or our environmental conditions, but concrete roads would be the future. They are here to stay. Period.