"Roads" Topic
5 Posts
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Grelber | 15 Aug 2018 9:12 p.m. PST |
I see Novus Design Studios makes gravel roads. When (historically) did people start building gravel roads? Was this very limited? That were "metalled" roads like? For instance the road that ran from northern France to Brussels that figured heavily in the Waterloo campaign? Grelber |
Artilleryman | 16 Aug 2018 2:12 a.m. PST |
Macadamised roads (laid stones of a relatively uniform size)have been with us since the mid 18th Century starting in France. They were certainly given a boost by the growth of the mail coach etc in Britain. Eventually these would be 'fixed' with tar to become tar macadam roads in the 1830s onwards. The Brussels road mentioned was a pavé i.e. it was paved in the same way as a cobbled road. In this particular case there were wide beaten earth tracks on either side for foot traffic and farm animals. There were other pavés throughout Europe but they were rare. |
KeepYourPowderDry | 16 Aug 2018 5:39 p.m. PST |
If you want to see what pavé roads actually look like pop over to YouTube and have a look for Paris-Roubaix. There are a number of early season cycling races which link up these secteurs of pavé, both in Northern France and Belgium. Paris-Roubaix is probably the most famous, and a really brutal race – it's nickname is 'l'enfer du nord' Certainly in open countryside expect to find a ditch on either side. The cobbles, or pavé are big. Much bigger than traditional cobblestones used in roads in the UK. There is also a style of loaf named after them. |
McLaddie | 19 Aug 2018 12:21 p.m. PST |
Macadamised roads (laid stones of a relatively uniform size)have been with us since the mid 18th Century starting in France. Artilleryman: Actually, Macadamised roads were the creation of the Scottish John Loudon McAdam. The first section of Macadamised road was completed in England in 1810. No major effort was carried out until 1820. France didn't build them first. Here is a overview of the man, roads and process with some pictures from the 1850s. link |
Swampster | 19 Aug 2018 6:27 p.m. PST |
The French had their own system by Tresaguet which was latish 18th century. It was the first to use proper engineering principles since the Romans, though it turned out to be over-engineeered – the later systems, especially Mcadam's, used much less of a foundation as it was found to be unnecessary. The French built a huge amount in about a decade or so but the labour was largely provided by corvee and seems to have been yet another grievance against the government. The revolution halted most of the road building but once Napoleon was established, he continued the road building using the same system. There were some post-Roman metalled roads – the Low Countries seems to have had a decent network even in medieval times. In other places, the metalling tended to be within towns and sometimes for a few miles outside. Areas where the traffic couldn't spread out – which often happened where there was no boundary – might also be metalled. The approach to a bridge was one such. Britain lagged behind much of Europe until the 19th century but rapidly advanced afterwards. There had been earlier attempts at improvement such as the establishment of turnpikes, but this didn't achieve much success and created discontent. |
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