How much does a road cost?

[VirgilCaine]

AFAIK all major roads that were used for the military (and that was the case for all those well built roads with several layers of stone, gravel, sand, whatever) were built by the military. Not to say that they didn't also use slaves to build them

Perhaps that was the reason that building those roads wasn't more expensive

But then the soldiers were probably glad their insane officers weren't out getting them killed (or in the case of roads into enemy territory, weren't getting them killed faster).

 

[adwyn]

By the end of the first century AD a Roman foot soldier's pay was only 300 seterces a year, though an officers would certainly exceed the 1,000 given above. At 10,000 sesterces this mean a mile of road is equivalent to the annual pay of thirty or so foot soldiers.

Maintenance on modern roads is expected to cost about 6-10% of their original cost depending on use and climate.

Using that you can figure out the cost of the road by comparing it to whatever wage scale your using for your campaign. Keep in mind this is a per mile cost. A road connecting two small towns or forts 20 miles apart, about a days march, would be equal in cost to build as hiring 500-600 soldiers and cost the same as 50-60 soldiers a year to maintain.

And that's just one road. Most roads are found in networks, and then of course there are bridges which can be the same as several, even dozens of miles of road.

 

[Jupp]

It was my impression that those 300 were payed three times a year:

The pay for the legionary under Augustus was 300 sesterces three times each year. Domitian increased the yearly total to 1200 sesterces and made quarterly payments. A "lump" payment was made when a new emperor was enthroned, with about one-half of the amount going into "savings. The following comparison briefly sketches known payment levels:

Comparison in Denarii

AUGUSTUS DOMITIAN

"Private" 225 300

Centurian 3750 5000

It is difficult to interpret these amounts in modern terms. There is evidence that the legionary could live reasonably well on two-thirds of his pay. Using corn as a standard, 60 modii would apparently keep him for a year, and a modius usually cost one denarius. Thus, he had sufficient corn per week for just over a days pay, or under Domitian, a fifth of this pay would have gone in corn.

 

[BluWolf]

The question really has three different answers depending on your campaign, style of game and what you are trying to accomplish.

1) Easy-the road is just a hook for events and the actual cost really doesn' have much to do with anything.

Answer: hand wave it and get on with the meat of the game.

2) harder-You are looking for some real costs to burn character resoruces or to establish some sort of Verisimilitude.

Take the GP availability between the beginning and ending point and come to an average. Call that a per month cost. Depending on how difficult the terrain is and how advanced a road you want to build determine how long it will take. Multiply that cost out.

3) Very hard- this starts asking alot of things about your game and the importance of things like roads in it.

Do you have a mechanic to reflect assets in your game? Roads are assets both economically and militarily. Are things like this important to your game and the overall campaign?

If so, I would say start looking for away to define things like holdfasts and other sorts of assets. If not, I would say swag it and move on.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Here is a link talking about old roman roads.

BTW, modern roads aren't that fragile compared to the romans ones, excluding the surface. Asphalt falls apart pretty readily but the lower layers are fairly similar to the romans. The big difference is the romans surfaced with cobbelstones, which is nigh infinitely durable but unsuitable for wheeled vehicles, and we use asphalt or concrete which is much smoother but more vulnerable to freeze-thaw cycles.

 

[Andor]

There's also the near certainty that a magical society that cared about roads would invent items to help in their creation and maintenance. Magical milestones to maintain the road. Picture a set of rods which when planted in the ground form a solid and impermeable road surface between them by transmutation magic. Pull up, move and repeat. Or a construct that crawls along the ground half burried, eating dirt from the front and 'laying down' a road behind it as it crawls.

 

[Rel]

Or a construct that crawls along the ground half burried, eating dirt from the front and 'laying down' a road behind it as it crawls.

A magical, dirt-eating road-crapper? Man, our DOT could sure use one of those!

 

[Thunderfoot]

Also, that court magician would suddenly find himself in a civil engineering position -

King: You said you could Disentigrate things didn't you?
Wizard: Yes, my leige.
King: Excellent, I have a task for you
Wizard: Yes my leige, whom do you want destroyed?
King: Not whom, what. There is this stretch of land that needs to be perfectly level...

Another thing to take into account is that so far we are using the Roman model, other European models were used that were not even that labor intensive. Many post Imperial roads were little more than horizontal walls without mortar, much cheaper to build. The plank roads (as mentioned earlier were also low-tech solutions to "comfort" problems. Don't forget though that "paved" style roads would be the exception, not the norm (ever hear the phrase King's highway?) and would likely be littered with toll booths to collect toll taxes for the privelage of use. Many times the King's highway would "spawn" several smaller "pauper paths" that would run parallel for those who are less financialy stable.
The King's highway is also a magnet for bandits (leading to the popular term "highway man") which is why nobles would have armed guards accompany them, who would, in turn, complain about the lack of protection on the highway, which would lead to the highering of more guards, which would increase the cost of "maintainance", etc, etc, etc...

Ah, civil engineering class finally "paying" off (sorry about the pun)

 

[F5]

Also, that court magician would suddenly find himself in a civil engineering position -

Ignoring the historical, in a D&D world roads would are pretty easy to hand-wave.

One high-level court magician with knowledge: engineering, Wall of Stone and Stone shape. As mentioned, Disintegrate wouldn't hurt. With very little effort... *poof*...there's a road.

The rich places would always have fine, well-maintained roads, and the poor places (those whithout 5th-level spells to sling around) would have very poor roads. And bridges, and etc.

 

[Andor]

Ignoring the historical, in a D&D world roads would are pretty easy to hand-wave.

One high-level court magician with knowledge: engineering, Wall of Stone and Stone shape. As mentioned, Disintegrate wouldn't hurt. With very little effort... *poof*...there's a road.

The rich places would always have fine, well-maintained roads, and the poor places (those whithout 5th-level spells to sling around) would have very poor roads. And bridges, and etc.

Yeah, lesse Wall of stone is a 5th level spell, so a 10th level wizard with a moderate stat boost could cast three a day. Generating a piece of road 2 inches thick, 10 feet wide and 25 feet long with each casting. Standard NPC hiring rates for spell casting makes that 1500 gp per day for 75 feet of thin narrow road. I'm thinking I'd hire laborers myself, had I a road that needs building.