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About how price-competitive and efficient do you suppose the road building/repair services in this country are, and by what standard? How much of it is federal/state/municipal employees, vs. state, regional, and national private companies?

And when the article mentions a price of $500 for macadam/asphalt, per what?

Are there any states or municipalities that are notable for road building/repair at lower cost?

Specifiable cost reduction should be a prominent part of all Republican/Conservative campaigns, in all aspects of public expenditure, without being anti-union.

I live in MA. We built a road fairly recently. It cost you $15B!

Now, sometimes the roof of the tunnel collapses and kills people, and sometimes there are leaks and water from the harbor overhead starts to enter the tunnel, but -- hey -- for a measly $15B, what can you expect??

The price is quoted in dollars per ton. A ton of liquid asphalt contains about 235 US gallons. The paving industry has made enormous strides in the US because we have copied European standards that include the use of polymerized asphalt and a new way to measure its performance. There was evidence that European asphalt roads outlasted American roads because of performance additives. Nearly every state has adopted what is known as the SHRP program(Strategic Highway Research Program.) Instead of using a penetration grading system, each state has adopted a measure based on climate. Previously, AC grades were AC-10, AC-20, etc. Now, the products are rated on upper and lower temperatures, IE; 64-22.
64 C is 147 F, the hottest temperature expected in a given year. -22 C is -8 F, representing the coldest expected temperature. Some states use 64-22, others use 58-28, 74-22 and so on. The temperature range can be changed by blending various asphalts and polymers.
Concrete highways cost 2.4 times more to build and maintain in their expected life cycle than asphalt roads do. The liquid asphalt in a given road is about 6 percent polymerized oil and 94 percent aggregate.

I don’t know what the $500 is. Maybe a truck load?

High volume, high production, as in highway construction, asphalt installed/placed runs around $60 to $90 per ton (New York State).

That doesn’t include any preparation work or striping.