Working on the road

They take good care of roads in Europe. If you've ever driven through Germany you know that the roads are in great condition. If you've ever driven through Germany you also know that it seems that they are always working on the roads. There is no way to drive through that country without passing large stretches of road work. And that's annoying, you will loose quite some time because of this.

But to keep the roads in good condition it needs to be done. Roads wear pretty quickly. The asphalt wears out, especially in the busy areas. And then the road works start again. Is there no other way?

Once I saw an episode of Thunderbirds where they had this massive machine that just drove over area, burned down anything in it's path and behind it let out a new road. Nice, but not really feasible.

Here's an other idea. Why not replace the top layer, the part that wears, with something like a carpet. Of course not a regular carpet, but a 3-5 cm flexible layer that can be rolled up. The material could be a bit rubber like, and very open so that water (from rain) would drain through. This may wear even faster, but there replacing it will take a lot less work. In one weekend you can do miles and miles of road. Just roll it up and roll out the new layer.

This would still be a big logistical operation. And the rolls would have to be several lanes wide. But the rolls could be transported to a storage area somewhere besides the road. During the transport they can transported 'oblong'. During roll out it is turned 90 degrees to be multiple lane wide.

Get some giant nails in akin a huge nail gun to staple it and you're done...

I know this is wild and bizar idea, but nonetheless, I do feel that there has to be a better way than scraping of the asphalt every 5-15 years and laying a whole new layer.