Asphalt does occur naturally in the earth.
But the asphalt that is used for paving roads and driveways and for roofing is derived from petroleum such as crude oil.
The crude oil or petroleum is turned into asphalt through a process using machines and equipment and then the asphalt is sent off to be used for paving roads, driveways, roofing etc.
The asphalt is then heated when it's ready to go onto the road or other surface and then is rolled over with a road paving roller machine that compacts it.
Then within about 5 or 10 minutes the asphalt can be driven on.
The state that has the highest gas tax is the state of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania has a gas tax as high as 77.10 cents per gallon.
The gas taxes in Pennsylvania and other states goes to the cost of paving roads, building roads and maintaining roads as well.
Once a newly paved road as been paved you can drive on the road within 5 to 10 minutes once the road has been paved and the road paver rolling machine makes a few passes over the asphalt.
The road will not be opened back up to traffic until the rollers have gone over the paved surface and then once that happens they will direct you to drive over the newly paved surface.
It doesn't take long for the asphalt to set and to allow vehicles to drive over it again.
It costs as much as $1 million dollars to pave just one mile of road.
The $1 million dollars of paving a road includes the equipment, workers salary, cost of asphalt or other material to pave the road etc.
Paving and even resurfacing roads costs a lot of money.
The money to pave the roads we drive on comes from taxes such as gasoline tax, diesel fuel tax, sales tax, property taxes etc.
So when we complain about high taxes we must also think about the money that goes into paving those roads and keeping those roads in good condition that we use to get from point a to point b.
The machines to pave the roads are very high in cost and then you have to pay to transport those machines to the road paving job site.
Also you have the machine operators as well to pay.
Paving a 10 mile road can cost as much as 10 million dollars.
Yes it's very expensive.
Most paved roads last between 20 to 30 years and sometimes longer but sometimes they get resurfaced sooner if needed.