this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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Honestly this is the problem with all road infrastructure. It'll be interesting to see how countries like China manage it. China currently has the largest paved-road system in the world, and maintaining that will not come cheap.
That they aren't being properly maintained/funded? It looks like a bunch of the bridges that are having issues are mostly due to age.
China's road infrastructure is all much newer than most other developed nations. And since it was built later I imagine the materials and civil engineering undergirding them is better.
However, the bill always comes due eventually for reinforced concrete. It's currently coming due in most of the west now from all the freeway building that happened in the 50s.
China still has a long time til they're in the same place, and it will be interesting to see if they learned the lessons of not deferring maintenance.
The real answer is that most roads are a transient solution as transit gets built out. They should form an auxiliary network, not the backbone of a country's transportation.