"Steve Walker" wrote in message
...
On 19/03/2021 14:45, Harry Bloomfield 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.

Years ago ('80s or '90s IIRC) they demonstrated laying concrete as a
continuous slab and, when it had set, but not hardened, microcracking it.
It gave space for expansion, so no need for expansion joints (although
simply angling those or making them V shaped will do away with the regular
jolts and noise) and did away with the need for grooving the road surface
for water dispersal (and the irregular surface meant no drone - just like
tarmac). Unfortunately I never heard anything about it again.

Presumably because it didn't work or was too expensive to do.