Brief History of Roads

• As early as 3,500 BC, roads with hard surfaces were found in the land of Mesopotamia - the land
"between the rivers”, a historical region in modern-day Iraq situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river
system and home to the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
 The wheel was invented in the 4000 BC, where the Sumerians inserted rotating axles into solid
discs of wood. The discs began to be hollowed out making a lighter wheel in 2000 BC.
 This innovation led to major advances in two main areas.
1. Transport: the wheel began to be used on carts and battle chariots.
2. Mechanization of agriculture (animal traction, crop irrigation) and craft industries (for
example, the centrifugal force of the wheel is the basic mechanism in windmills).

An Ur wheel from Mesopotamia, 4th millennium BC, More on Road, Transportation:

consisting of a disc of wood which turns on an axle. https://www.britannica.com/technology/road#ref592001
Courtesy of the National Museum of Science and
Technology, Milan (Italy) - Credit: Aisa/Leemage

• Roads of stone surface were also found in the Mediterranean, island of Crete, similarly constructed as
those in the Western Hemisphere by the Mayans, Aztecs and the Incas of Central South America.
• The early road systems were constructed primarily for the following purposes:
1. Movement of armies in their conquest and for defense against invasion.
2. Transport of food and trade of goods between neighboring towns and cities.
 Brief History of Roads (Continued…)
• The Romans who discovered cement, expanded their vast empire through extensive road networks in 334 BC,
radiating in many directions emanating from the capital city of Rome. Many of the roads built by the Romans
still exist even after 2,000 years.

• Ancient Roman roads – a monument to history and road construction

https://www.geotech.hr/en/ancient-roman-roads-a-monument-to-history-and-
road-construction/
• Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable?
https://news.mit.edu/2023/roman-concrete-durability-lime-casts-0106
• https://www.weforum.org/videos/scientists-have-discovered-how-the-romans-
made-self-healing-concrete/
• https://www.britannica.com/technology/Roman-road-system
Brief History of Roads (Continued…)
 The greatest systematic road builders of the ancient world were the Romans, who were very conscious of
the military, economic, and administrative advantages of a good road system. The Romans drew their
expertise mainly from the Etruscans—particularly in cement technology and street paving—though they
probably also learned skills from the Greeks (masonry), Cretans, Carthaginians (pavement structure),
Phoenicians, and Egyptians (surveying). Concrete made from cement was a major development that
permitted many of Rome’s construction advances.
 The average width of an ancient Roman road was between 5.5 to 6.0 m, and they consisted of several
characteristic load-bearing layers, regardless of the base on which they were built.
Ancient Roman roads consisted of several layers:

 Foundation soil – the base on which a road was

build was compressed to be compact and to
avoid structure settlement and then covered with
sand or mortar.
 Statumen – a layer that was laid on compacted
foundation soil, consisting of crushed rock of
minimum granularity of 5 cm. The thickness of
this layer ranged from 25 to 60 cm.
 Rudus – a 20 cm thick layer consisting of crushed
rock 5 cm in diameter in cement mortar.
 Nucleus – a concrete base layer made of cement,
sand and gravel; 30 cm thick.
 Summum dorsum – the final layer consisting of
large 15 cm thick rock blocks.
Birth of the Modern Road
• Europe’s gradual technological advancements during the 17th and 18th centuries saw increased commercial
travel, improved vehicles, and the breeding of better horses. These factors created an incessant demand for
better roads, and supply and invention both rose to meet that demand.
 In 1585 the Italian engineer Guido Toglietta wrote a thoughtful treatise on a pavement system using
broken stone that represented a marked advance on the heavy Roman style.
 In 1607 Thomas Procter published the first English-language book on roads.
 The first highway engineering school in Europe, the School of Bridges and Highways, was founded in Paris
in 1747.
 Up to this time roads had been built, with minor modifications, to the heavy Roman cross section, but in
the last half of the 18th century the fathers of modern road building and road maintenance appeared
in France and Britain.
• Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet (1716—1796) was a French engineer known for his introduction of new
methods of construction and maintenance of stone roads. He improved the crown, drainage, and grade of the
road including the stone foundation by reducing the depth of broken stones to 25 centimeters. Tresaguet
made it possible for Napoleon to build the massive highways of France that He was given the title "Father of
modern road building”.
• Thomas Telford (1757-1834) 30 years later, a Scottish Engineer born in Westminster Abbey, president and
founder of the lnstitute of Civil Engineer, introduced improvements in the construction methods of Jerome
Tresaguet. The road foundation course of Telford was made of stones having 3 inches minimum thickness. 5
inches breadth and 7 inches height. Smaller stones were driven by mauls on top voids and trued the surfaces
by breaking the projecting points. Telford employed a flat sub-grade, providing slight crown using stones of
varying sizes.
Birth of the Modern Road (Continued…)
• John Louden Mac Adam (1756-1836). England followed the ongoing highway development started by France.
The Macadam road concept, was developed and widely accepted that it was considered then as the greatest
advancement in road builing. He showed that traffic could be supported by a relatively thin layer of small,
single-sized, angular pieces of broken stone placed and compacted on a well-drained natural formation and
covered by an impermeable surface of smaller stones. He had no use for the masonry constructions of his
predecessors and contemporaries.
 Drainage was essential to the success of McAdam’s method, and he required the pavement to be
elevated above the surrounding surface. The structural layer of broken stone (as shown in the figure) was
eight inches thick and used stone of two to three inches maximum size laid in layers and compacted by
traffic—a process adequate for the traffic of the time. The top layer was two inches thick, using three-
fourths- to one-inch stone to fill surface voids between the large stones. Continuing maintenance was
essential.
 Although McAdam drew on the successes and failures of others, his total structural reliance on broken
stone represented the largest paradigm shift in the history of road pavements. The principles of the
“macadam” road are still used today. McAdam’s success was also due to his efficient administration and
his strong view that road managers needed skill and motivation.
• In 1858, Eli Blake invented the first stone crusher and at the same period, a steam road roller weighing 30
tons was introduced in France by its inventor, Aveling and Porter.
Birth of the Modern Road (Continued…)
New Paving Materials
19th century (latter half) - urban street paving became widespread and the common paving materials were:
- hoof-sized stone blocks and similarly sized wooden blocks
- Bricks
- McAdam’s broken stone provided the cheapest pavement but its unbound surface was difficult to maintain,
was usually slimy or dusty (water/weather/horse excrement)
- Asphalt and concrete (occasionally)
New Paving Materials (Continued…)
Turn of the 20th century - roads were largely inadequate for the demands about to be placed on them by the
automobile and truck.
- vehicle speeds increased rapidly, the available friction between road and tire became critical for accelerating,
braking, and cornering.
- numerous pavement failures made it obvious that much stronger and tougher materials were required.
- ongoing search for a better pavement which asphalt and concrete both offered promise.
New Paving Materials (Continued…)
Asphalt – a mixture of bitumen and stone. Bitumen is a black viscous mixture of hydrocarbons obtained naturally
or as a residue from petroleum distillation. One great convenient coincidences of asphalt development was that
the automobile ran on gasoline - also a by-product of distillation of kerosene from petroleum.
- Asphalt footpaths were first laid in Paris in 1810, but the method was not perfected until after 1835.
- The first road use of asphalt occurred in 1824, when asphalt blocks were placed on the Champs-Élysées in
Paris, but the first successful major application was made in 1858 on the nearby rue Saint-Honoré.
- A major force in the development of modern road asphalt came from the United States, which had few
deposits of natural bitumen, therefore engineers were driven to study the principles behind the behaviour of
this material.
- Edward de Smedt at Columbia University in the 1860s, conducted his first tests in New Jersey in 1870 and
by 1872, producing the equivalent of a modern “well-graded” maximum-density asphalt. The first
applications were in Battery Park and on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1872. He went to Washington,
D.C., in 1876 as part of President Ulysses S. Grant’s desire to make that town “a Capital City worthy of a
great Nation.” Grant had appointed a commission to oversee road making, and it conducted its first trials
on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1877. Sixty percent of the trials used de Smedt’s new product and were great
successes.
New Paving Materials (Continued…)

- Clifford Richardson in 1887 took the task, set about by de Smedt who was the inspector of asphalts and
cements, in codifying the specifications for asphalt mixes. Richardson basically developed two forms of
asphalt: asphaltic concrete, which was strong and stiff and thus provided structural strength; and hot-
rolled asphalt, which contained more bitumen and thus produced a far smoother and better surface for
the car and bicycle. In 1905, he published a standard textbook on asphalt paving, and the practice did not
change greatly thereafter. The biggest change was in the machinery available to produce, place, and
finish the material rather than in the product itself. Toward the end of the century, there were major
movements toward the use of recycled asphalt, chemical modifiers for improving bitumen properties,
and small fibres for improving crack resistance. In addition, developments in testing and structural
analysis made it possible to design an asphalt pavement as a sophisticated structural composite.
New Paving Materials (Continued…)

Concrete - a mixture of cement and stone.

- The first successful concrete pavement was built in Inverness, Scotland, in 1865. Neither technology, however,
advanced far without the pressures of the car, and they both required the availability of powerful stone-crushing,
mixing, and spreading equipment.
The first modern concrete roads were produced by Joseph Mitchell, a follower of Telford, who conducted three
successful trials in England and Scotland in 1865–66. Like asphalt technology, concrete road building was largely
developed by the turn of the 20th century and was restricted more by the available machinery than by the
material. Problems were also encountered in producing a surface that could match the performance of the
surface produced almost accidentally by hot-rolled asphalt. For the following century the two materials remained
in intense competition, both offering a similar product at a similar cost, and there was little evidence that one
would move far ahead of the other as they continued on their paths of gradual improvement.
Highways in the Philippines
Early part of 1900
- Transportation largely depended on trails, waterways, railroad, earth roads and partially graveled roads
- The American government initiated the development of roadways in the Philippines, connecting towns, cities
and provinces
- Macadam road type was introduced. It gained wide acceptance because of the abundant supply of stones and
gravel.
Post World War II Era
- Rehabilitation and construction of roads and bridges damaged during the war was continued by the new
independent Philippine government through the reparations and war damages paid by the Japanese
government. Other financial grants and aids received from the U.S. government were used in the construction
and rehabilitation of roads and bridges
1. https://richestph.com/roads-in-the-philippines-evolution-of-infrastructure/
2. “Roads of the Philippines” by Department of Public Works and Highways, Philippines
3. “A History of Philippine Roads” by National Historical Commission of the Philippines
4. https://www.pids.gov.ph/details/news/in-the-news/national-roads-should-serve-all-filipinos#
5. Villafuerte, J. (2006). Roads and Concrete Reign: Making and Breaking History. Manila: University of the Philippines Press
6. Aguilar, L. (2012). From Galleons to Highways: A History of Roadways in the Philippines. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press
7. Department of Public Works and Highways. (2021). Road Infrastructure Development in the Philippines. Retrieved from
https://www.dpwh.gov.ph