Chaussee

In Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet states it remains a generic term for a common paved highway outside of built-up areas, but they may transition into prospekts within towns and cities.

The French word, in turn, went back to the Gallo-Romanic via calciata and meant a road surfaced with firmly compacted crushed rock bound with lime.

Around 1790, Adelung complained that "several new authors have proposed German names"[2] but these expressions "do not capture the concept either, and may be used for every other type of artificial way [Kunststraße]".

It was followed later in England – as "macadamised causeways" (German: Chausseen mit Makadam) by road builder, John Loudon McAdam (born 1756) using gravel paving - was further developed in France, and from there arrived in the German-speaking region as a result of the French occupation of Prussia under Napoleon I (1807-1813).

The stone carriageway was the paved section with a base course of gravel or broken rock as a subgrade and a covering of sand and loam.

For example, they had to follow "the shortest possible distance between two given points"[4] as well as "gradients that were not too inclined from the horizontal (three to five per cent),[4] in order to keep the demands on animal-drawn vehicles and brakes low; they should have lay bys (24 - 30 feet wide, i.e. eight to ten metres),[4] and also be secure from flooding, i.e. built on a raised embankment, where they run through lowland.

[4] In introducing the chaussee concept in the 18th/19th centuries, Europeans once again reached a technological standard for long distance highways that had not been seen since Roman roads were built.

The first roads of the chaussee type were built in Western Europe in the early 18th century, coming from Holland at the end of the baroque period.

[3] Along the chaussees, at a distance of about one and a half hour's travel, then a league (German: Meile), road huts (Chausseehäuser) were built for the money collectors (Chausseegeldeinnehmer), thus introducing an early form of toll system.