Other than the huge material demand, Alexander had to also include the cost of cement.
Alexander found that it took around five hundred kilograms of firewood to make just one ton of cement.
With firewood being ten kilograms a ropal, that came to fifty ropals per ton.
Then there was the cost of raw materials.
Those were very cheap.
Sand was everywhere so Alexander just needed to pay for the cost of collecting it.
Limestone and gypsum both came from the same place and being soft rocks they were easy to mine.
And clay was well clay, just dirt that needed to be washed and cleaned.
In total, their cost was about ten ropals a ton.
But the most expensive part of his production was the milling process, which cost him one hundred and fifty (150) ropals per ton in total.
But that would soon be cut by ten times as Alexander planned to introduce some new types of machinery to do all the heavy lifting.
So, in short, one ton of cement would cost Alexander seventy-five (75) ropals.
And that gave the cement cost of one kilometer of road to be almost ten thousand (10,000) ropals.
And remember, this was just the cement.
The road would be made actually of concrete, which was a mixture of cement, sand, and gravel.
And then there was the cost of earlier preparations such as clearing out the vegetation and digging the curbs.
So Alexander estimated conservatively per kilometer would cost him eleven to thirteen thousand (11,000 – 13,000) ropals, or a farmer’s six to seven years of pay.
Now, while this might sound like a lot for just one kilometer of road, this was in fact, not a large number.
For context, in the US it takes around eight to ten million (8,000,000 – 10,000,000) per mile, which is also six to seven years of median income pay of seventy thousand (70,000) dollars a year.
A surprisingly similar number.
But it was the demand for the cement that put Alexander off.
Zanzan was about the size of Japan, which was not big, but not tiny either.
But if he were to form an extensive road network that connected not only the large, prominent towns but also every tiny village, fishing hamlet, and hut, as Alexander intended, he would need a daily production capacity in the tens of thousands of tons a day, just to make roads.
And though one might say, ‘Well just build more kilns then,’ there was the milling bottleneck where the cement could not be processed quickly enough, the raw material bottleneck where the limestone could not be mined fast enough or the firewood cut quickly enough and the labor bottleneck where there would not be enough men to work kilns without everyone starving.
And even if more people were to be hired, well some of that new hires would have to farm to feed these new people.
So if Alexander wanted to actually do such a thing, they would need to be making one thing and one thing only – cement, and nothing else.
This was clearly impossible.
That’s why, instead, after giving himself some time to think it over, Alexander decided to look back on how the Romans did it and decided to emulate that.
The Romans too had concrete, though it was not the Portland concrete, but a kind of concrete made from volcanic ash which used a natural volcanic mineral called pozzolana.
And the way they used it to make roads was much different from Alexander’s.
Alexander planned to use the concrete to form a flat, smooth, pristine road, much like the highways of his previous world.
Whereas the Romans used their concrete as a kind of mortar or glue to bind the stones together that formed the road.
So, while Alexander’s road was a true concrete road, i.e- a road made of concrete, the Roman roads were stone roads that used concrete as only a binding material.
The disadvantage of the latter would be self-evident to anyone who has ever traveled on a stone road before.
Because the wheel travels over little stones instead of a smooth surface, there is a constant shaking and jerking motion that plays havoc on one’s hips and spine and Alexander’s desire to build a concrete road was because he wanted to mitigate that.
There was also his consideration that there is less wear and tear on the wheels on a concrete road and the attainable speed is much higher.
And at last, for merchants traveling on a stone road carrying fragile commodities like glass and glassware, as Alexander intended to sell, or drinks like wine, it was always perilous.
The constant vibration of the carts made it so that there was a greater chance of breakage or spillage, which made merchants reluctant to trade these goods or necessitate the use of padding, which decreased cargo capacity.
A problem that would have been absent in Alexander’s road.
And for anyone claiming that Roman concrete was way superior because it has lasted two thousand years while modern concrete lasts only a few decades, this is a fallacy.
Roman concrete never had to deal with the kind of forces modern concrete has to face, and although roman concrete had been found to get stronger with time due to a complex reaction that happens with water and the volcanic mineral, it is nowhere the magical thing that some make out it to be.
Faced again with another harsh reality as he did with Yemin, Alexander decided to make the road stone roads for the time being, vowing to slowly switch them with concrete ones once cement production caught up.
In this way, he hoped that though not every little road could be made out of concrete, at least the connections between the major city and trading hubs could be.
“Hmmm, okay, we will change tactics here,” Alexander at last addressed Uzak, dictating to the man his decision.
He first stated, “According to you, much of the roads are already half completed. There is already a layer of large stones as the foundations of the roads and on top of them is a layer of smaller rocks all mixed up with fine aggregates to fill the gaps. Right?” Alexander asked for confirmation. .
“Yes, my lord, that’s right,” The road maker nodded, adding, “According to you, this is where we are to then add a layer of the concrete to form the finishing surface.”
“Mmm, I did say that,” Alexander admitted, “But due to material shortages we will do things a bit differently,” Alexander claimed.
And then delineated, “Instead of using a concrete layer, the surface with be made of fine clay and gravel, with only a thin layer of just a millimeter of concrete to be used to bind everything together. In this way, our cement consumption will reduce to a fraction of the current need.”
“You think that’s possible?” Alexander then asked the experienced artisan for his opinion.
Uzak placed his hands on his chin and thought about it for a while.
“….., Mm, yes, I think so,” Finally with a jerky nod, Uzak answered affirmatively.
“Good, good, good,” Hearing the very ‘good’ answer, Alexander repeatedly said the word good, feeling like a ten-ton weight had been lifted off his chest.
This was because Alexander believed that if he could not form a robust road network, he was fuck.
And this belief came from studying the Romans.
Alexander believed that the Romans’ secret to success in controlling such a huge empire was their extensive road network, which allowed not only for commerce to flourish and thrive, but also enabled their army to rapidly march to any part of the empire, thus giving them the ability to rapidly attack or defend against any threats.
And he wanted to emulate that.
“My lord, there was something else,” Alexander was yanked out of his happy, relieved mood by Uzak’s chirpy voice, and this made the new pasha very frustrated.
‘What now? Don’t tell it’s another problem,’ Alexander snapped inside his head as the dread of seeing more problems had turned to anger.
But he still managed to keep a straight face outwardly and in a bit of an apprehensive voice only asked, “Yes?”
But fortunately for the young boy, this time it was not bad news.
In fact, it was quite good news as Uzak pointed out a feature that Alexander had missed.
“My lord, I suggest adding about two meters by two-meter ditches around twenty feet away from the road on both sides.” explaining, “In this way, not only would the drivers have a wide peripheral view of the road, but also wild animals and more importantly high way robbers and illegal merchants won’t be able to use the road.”
‘Well some things you can’t learn from reading a book,’ Alexander praised in his heart, knowing he could have never thought about this on his own just using his bookish knowledge.
“Is this how the roads are Adhan?” Alexander asked.
“Yes, my lord.” Uzak confirmed, saying, “The roads were made such after decades of many such tragic incidents,”
“Mmm, then I will leave it up to you. Good job,” Alexander gave an appreciative nod.
After which he asked, “And what about the aqueduct? And the sewage system?”
Though Alexander could vaguely presage the negative answer.
“I’m sorry my lord,” Uzak replied bitterly shaking his head, “But we can only start building them once we get enough cement.”
‘Figured’ Alexander placidly commented to himself.
“The road will not need much cement now. So concentrate on the aqueducts from now on,” Alexander then commanded the man to switch priorities.
“Yes, my lord,” Came the quick affirmative answer.