On 19/03/2021 03:19 pm, HVS wrote:
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.

The part of the M6 between the A449 and the A5 was originally surfaced
in concrete. Then after you'd braved the A5, the bit of the M1 south of
A6 Luton Airport was all concrete, including the once-infamous Watford
2-lane stretch (and the M10, IIRC), all the way to Hendon North.

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.

I'm sure that's correct.