dorlomin wrote:Smooth roads are easy to maintain when there is little heavy goods traffic. Tar is cheap.
I'm sure dorlomin is just joking.
Tight times put gravel on the road
Gravel roads, once a symbol of quaint times, are emerging as a sign of financial struggle in a growing number of rural towns.
High costs and tight budgets have prompted communities in Maine, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Vermont to convert or consider converting their cracked asphalt roads back to gravel to cut maintenance costs, officials in those states say
In Montcalm County, Mich., 10 miles were converted to cut patching costs in 2009, said Randy Stearns, managing director of the county's road commission. He cited one road that cost a combined $39,244 in 2008 and early 2009 for patching, but only $7,300 to crush into gravel. More roads may be converted this summer, he said
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/201 ... oads_N.htm
I would venture to say, here in the North, it would be a decade or less without maintenance before paved roads would deteriorate to the point of being impassable, even without traffic. Figure not much longer beyond that for gravel roads to disappear into a cow paths.