Stumbled on how many roman roads are still under modern UK streets

Was reading a BBC article last night and it said over 2,000 miles of roman roads are still in use under current roads in Britain. Never thought about it before but it makes sense they just paved over the old ones instead of starting fresh. Anybody ever notice one near where they live?

2 comments

2 Comments

dianagreen15d ago

That's just typical British infrastructure planning right there: spend 2000 years not fixing a road, just keep slapping new tarmac on top. It's like finding out my favorite hiking boots still have the original soles from the Roman Empire underneath. "Oh yeah, we just paved over the Colosseum, it's a roundabout now." Honestly, it explains so much about the state of potholes in this country. No wonder the drains flood every spring, they're still trying to handle Roman runoff from toga wash day. I'm half expecting to see a chariot lane marked on Google Maps next time I'm stuck in traffic.

shah.ben15d ago

The A5 near Milton Keynes is a perfect example of this @dianagreen. I swear they just keep paving over the old Roman road layer by layer and calling it maintenance. Last spring they dug a trench for some utility work and there were literal cobblestones from the Antonine era about three feet down. No wonder my car's alignment is shot, I'm essentially driving on a thousand year old sidewalk with modern tarmac painted on top.