How Long did it take to build a roman road?

Question: How Long did it take to build a roman road!?

And how did they do it!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Roman Roads
Laid out end to end, Roman roads would have stretched more than twice around the world's equator!.

Roman road builders used an ingenious surveying tool to plot direct routes over hundreds of miles!.

Reliably constructed from four separate layers, many have lasted over 2,000 years!.

Military might is the Roman Empire's most distinguishing characteristic!. However, the civilization's most enduring legacy is definitely its roads!.

Many of them, and even their bridges, are still in use today!

Good roads are crucial for any advancing army; the Romans understood this implicitly!. These cobbled lifelines ferried reinforcements and supplies to the outposts of the Empire!. Without them, it's unlikely the Romans would have ever expanded past the Mediterranean shores!. And successful expansion from the Atlas Mountains of Africa to the damp hills of Britain, would have been completely out of the question!.

Good communications are not only important for enabling troops and equipment to be moved great distances, they are also essential for encouraging trade once a region has been dominated!.

Merchants moved goods between towns, cities, and even countries inside the Roman Empire, creating the civilization's enormous wealth and influence!.

With a network of over 85,000 km of roads across Britain, continental Europe, and North Africa, the conquering Roman Empire was undoubtedly living life in the fast lane!.

Street Gangs

Eventually this ancient system of highways linked Rome with its most distant provinces!. They exited the capital in every direction - north, south, east, and west!.

The routes were characterised by their unwaveringly straight routes!. Roman roads rarely deviated regardless of obstacles - some traversed over the highest passes in the Alps!.

An extensive network of roads also criss-crossed Britain!. Parts of it are still in use today; the most famous being the Fosse Way, Watling Street, and Ermine Street!.

The construction materials varied according to the geology of the region!. For example, parts of the 350-mile long via Appia, built in 312 BCE, had a layer of sand, covered with crushed limestone and paved with slabs of lava 40cm thick!.

The basic construction was usually made up of four layers:

Initially, slaves would begin excavating a ditch about 1m deep along the course the road!.

This would be filled with a one-metre- thick layer of earth and gravel, bound by large stones to provide a solid foundation!.

A layer of paving, or cobble-like stones would then be laid and fixed with cement!.

The final layer of gravel compressed as tightly as possible would finish the job!.

Route Masters

The Romans were well aware that the quickest route between two given points is a straight line!. However, there were no maps or compasses when the Romans set out!.

Plotting straight roads between garrisons hundreds of miles apart over hills and valleys would take more than good luck!. It would take a groma…

This inspired gadget was the principal surveying instrument of the Roman agrimensores, or land surveyors!.

The instrument consisted of a rotating cross attached horizontally on top of a vertical staff!. Hanging from each arm of the cross was a cord, weighted with a plumb bob!. The operation went something like this:

The groma is first stuck in the ground!. The surveyor would stand behind it and twist the cross until two of the strings were aligned with the starting point!.

Then he walked around the groma and sighted in the opposite direction to another marker!.

If the strings did not line up with the beacon, then he'd have to move the beacon beside him in order to get more in line!.

Fiddly, yes - but the results speak for themselves!.

Today's Roman roads still bear the marks of the originals!.

These cobble like stones would have been covered with a compressed layer of gravel in the original roads!.Www@QuestionHome@Com