In article >,
Wayne Pein > wrote:
>
>As far as I know, freeze-thaw damage only occurs when cracks are first
>formed in the surface from heavy vehicle use and water enters these and
>freezes.

Freezing not only works from the surface, but from the soil beneath
and around the road. Frost heaves can damage the surface themselves,
and also cause cracking allowing further damage.

>I've never seen heat buckling in my neck of the woods here in
>NC, but I can't discount that it might happen elsewhere. I suspect that
>it occurs when heavy vehicles operate on the hot surface and is not a
>function of mere heat.

You'd be wrong. Enough heat can force segments of concrete highways
above neighboring ones.

>by deterioration, which implies slow degregation. Any natural disaster
>can destroy roads, but the culprit of deterioration is not age from just
>sitting there but use from motor vehicles, and more precisely heavy ones.

This is true on a road which is used by heavy vehicles, because that's
the fastest method of deterioration from such roads. An unused
Interstate-quality highway will last a good long time, because its
base is too deep to allow vegetation to get a foothold, and it's
well-drained (hopefully) and generally very thick. But eventually it
will deteriorate. Lesser-quality roads will deteriorate much faster,
particularly where freezes occur.
--
There's no such thing as a free lunch, but certain accounting practices can
result in a fully-depreciated one.