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Finally! Here's where my extensive background in concrete construction pays off! :-D (Seriously though, my father and brother run a concrete construction busine
by chadgeidel 10y ago
Finally! Here's where my extensive background in concrete construction pays off! :-D (Seriously though, my father and brother run a concrete construction business and I have worked on both residential and commercial jobs for 10+ years of my "youth")
For starters - $60k is a LOT for a driveway. My brother's company charges $10 per square foot (at the top end) to remove and replace a driveway. This assumes the ground is appropriate (drainage is acceptable, no need for fill, etc.) This is based on 4" of concrete and steel reinforcing mesh and no subgrade prep. As with anything there are "price boosters" but that's a reasonable estimate. Average driveway is maybe 20x40, so that works out to be $8 grand max. This is in suburban South Dakota, so it might be more in larger metro areas.
A highway is nothing like a driveway. As others have pointed out, the thickness of concrete alone is double or triple (probably a minimum of 8 inches - more like 10 inches) and the reinforcement is considerably more (3/4 inch steel rebar mat 16-18 inches on center). You have to also consider that the subgrade needs at least a few inches of gravel, which is fairly expensive. It doesn't stop there - once the concrete is poured, there is typically a curing agent applied on top of the surface, and then the expansion joints have to be sawed and sealed. This is just for the road surface. I'll bet this cost also has to take into account curbing and sidewalks.
I've personally worked on both kinds of jobs - residential driveways and suburban streets. It's at least 10x more work "per foot" to do a road over a driveway. It's the difference between building a weekend "hacker project" and a production ready ecommerce website.
- angersock 10y agoOur highways will probably last centuries if not millenia once cars and trucks stop banging on them. The Romans would be envious.
- chadgeidel 10y agoI would guess that within about 10-20 years of non-use they would be overgrown to the point of invisibility. Joints are tooled/cut every 20 feet (I think?) and grass has a habit of growing everywhere. The individual "sections" would remain in place of course, but growing things and erosion would push the joints further and further apart every season. IMHO - the pristine unbroken roadways would be like that for only a few years/maybe a decade.
- angersock 10y agoI'm not sure about that...the highways they put into are often more than three feet deep all told.
- chadgeidel 10y agoIt's highly unlikely (due to cost of materials) that there would be more than 12 inches of concrete on a highway. There would maybe be 3 feet of depth including base material (dirt, gravel, or other engineered fill types). You would only see that depth of concrete on an airport runway or where the aircraft are parked. I can't seem to find anything definitive about US road depths ATM.
- newman314 10y agoRoads in Germany are MUCH better. It's all relative.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 10y agoAs someone who's come from a third-world country to the USA, I have great respect for the quality of roads in America. The fact that we have thousands and thousands of miles of consistently well-paved roads, such that no matter where you are, you can expect the same high construction quality in freeways and city roads is something people here probably take for granted, but it is no trivial matter.
- bluedino 10y agoHave you been to northern states? The roads barely resemble roads.