What were some engineering techniques to make the Roman Roads?

Answer 1

During the times in the ancient world when Rome was gaining strength with each passing year, its roadways were superior to any other roads built by rival civilizations. The Roman engineers made the roads of Rome innovative in the following ways:

A. The roads were durable. To this day one can still see the remains of Roman roads. Durability was thus an innovation.

B. The roadways formed a wide network. Few if any civilizations in the Mediterranean world ever built such a wide network of roads. Before its collapse Rome had built a network of approximately 10,000 miles.

C. The roads were passable. Due the unique drainage systems, rain water slide off into ditches leaving the main thoroughfare passable for marching legions and their artillery and materials carts.

D. The roads made travel faster. Roman engineers made every effort to build straight roads and bridges through or over natural obstacles such as rivers and hills.

Answer 2

The Romans built three types of roads; the stone paved road (via munita), the gravelled road (via glaerata) and the earthen road (via terrena).

To build a via munita a ditch was ploughed down to the firmest layer of ground that was found. The ditch was filled with rubble from local materials or sand (when it could be found) up to one metre from the surface level. A flat floor of compressed gravel was then made. Then a surface was made by embedding the stones in concrete to create the paving. The concrete was laid in two thin layers. The bottom one had coarse concrete and the top one had fine concrete.