CribariLucasRoads

 ROMAN ROADS The Roman roads were essential for the growth of the Roman Empire, by enabling the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate news. At its peak, the Roman road system spanned 53,819 miles (85,004 km). They were always intended primarily as carriage roads, the means of carrying material from one location to another. First the two parallel trenches were built on either side of the planned road, with the resulting earthworks, stone and other materials being dumped and built up in the space between the two ditches. The Agger could be up to 6 ft. (1.8 m) high and 50 ft. (15 m) wide. Alternatively it could be very slight or almost non-existent as was the case with most minor roads. Next, the diggers would make a shallow 8 to 10 foot wide depression down the length of the agger, and line the edges with kerb stones to hold the entire construction in place. The bottom of this depression would then be lined with a series of stone fillers. 6 to 8 inch stones would form the foundation layer, with fist sized stones placed on top. In early roads the remaining gap would then be filled in with course sand to fill between the stones and to cover them by approximately 1 ft. Later roads may have used Roman volcanic concrete to mix the entire mixture together making the whole structure more solid. The road surface was then laid down using large, tight fitting, flat stones that could be found and transported locally. These larger surface stones would be cut to fit when possible to make the surface as smooth and seamless as possible.