Building A Highway Is Way More Complicated Than You’d Think

Building A Highway Is Way More Complicated Than You’d Think

There’s way more to building a road than just slathering some asphalt all over the ground. The process is actually pretty involved, with a bunch of steps you probably hadn’t thought of. And even a little bit of art to it.

This fantastic video from Aaron Jones shows the E.T. Simonds construction company from Carbondale, Illinois as they painstaking widen a four-mile stretch of I-57. There are four major steps — resurfacing, laying the road’s metal skeleton, dumping the concrete, and carefully putting the finishing touches on each lane.

It’s crazy to think how often you might be speeding over hand-finished roads. But every job worth doing is worth doing right. And every job done right is enthralling to watch.

Thanks Aaron!