I'm only moderately surprised that no one has informed our President so he can "fix this" :-)
That said, the history of this stuff [1] is pretty interesting as well. There were some 'test roads' in the desert outside of Las Vegas were the Dept of Transportation was trying different formulations for hot environments. In the desert the heat would make the roads more malleable than you wanted and trucks driving on them would leave some pretty impressive ruts. Concrete was used as well but the expansion and shrinking would destroy it too. Then there were some cobblestone roads that had been built in the 1800s that were still in good shape but you can't really make a freeway out of cobblestone :-).
That said, the history of this stuff [1] is pretty interesting as well. There were some 'test roads' in the desert outside of Las Vegas were the Dept of Transportation was trying different formulations for hot environments. In the desert the heat would make the roads more malleable than you wanted and trucks driving on them would leave some pretty impressive ruts. Concrete was used as well but the expansion and shrinking would destroy it too. Then there were some cobblestone roads that had been built in the 1800s that were still in good shape but you can't really make a freeway out of cobblestone :-).
[1] The History of Asphalt -- http://www.asphaltpavement.org/index.php?option=com_content&...