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Comment by Neliquat | Hacker News Reader

Agreed. The worst are the sectioned ones that ThumpThumpThump at about 20-50 cycles for miles. They collect rain in between sections and are more slippery, and less visible. Additionally, If you live where there is ice/snow, the road never heats from the sun and ices worse. I would love more asphalt roads, much easier and cheaper to patch, and maintain in non ideal situations, which is most roads.

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It really stinks living on one of these stretches of roads, since you get to sit in your house and hear that thumping all day and night. That 40-45 mph range is where it starts getting loud.

I would love more asphalt roads, much easier and cheaper to patch

Concrete roads tend to be cheaper over the long term, as they require less maintenance. In some regions the difference can be significant depending on traffic volumes and climate.

This seems odd to me, living in Australia where alot of roads are asphalt I don't know how it would be cheaper to repair them like they do out here.

The just have a truck roll around and dump some more asphalt in the holes, tap it with the shovel and it usually fixes it up fine. If not they come around 6/12 months later and do it again.

With concrete, can you just drive by and drop some cement in the cracks and holes and move on? Don't you have to usually cut out parts, repave and block off the road for an amount of time?

It's the maintenance costs over time that are generally better. Asphalt is convenience in that it's much more of a patch job, but over time it tends to require more maintenance so the costs level out. Asphalt overlay atop concrete will generally result in a more long-term solution with an easily maintainable surface to avoid the noise complaints some have echoed.

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