On 19 Mar 2021, Harry Bloomfield, Esq. wrote

NY expressed precisely :
I remember when major roads like the A34 between Oxford and the
M40 were made up of concrete slabs, with tar expansion joints.
Not a nice road surface to drive on - very hard (tarmac is hard,
but there's a bit more give in it) and the thump-thump-thump of
each joint gets very annoying after a few seconds ;-)

..and noisy. The built a motorway a few years ago in concrete, one
mile away. A petition soon had it resurfaced in tarmac.

There are some stretches of the M25 -- through Surrey and Kent (I
think) -- that are still concrete slabs with expansion joints; I
absolutely hate driving on them because of the noise.

I could be mis-remembering, but ISTR reading some years ago that the
Highways Agency/MoT tender calls for resurfacing don't specify which
material is to be used -- that is, it's left up to the companies
bidding for the contract to choose whichever one they they can supply
at best price.

--
Cheers,
Harvey