Rut (roads)

If the ruts are formed due to deformation of the subbase below the pavement, the only long-term repair is usually full-depth reconstruction of the road.

The ancient Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and Greeks constructed roads with artificial wheel-ruts deliberately cut into rock.

Such ancient stone rutways connected major cities with sacred sites, such as Athens to Eleusis, Sparta to Ayklia, or Elis to Olympia.

The Diolkos was a hard poros limestone road with grooved tracks (wheel-ruts), along which large wooden flatbed cars carrying entire ships and their cargo were pulled by slaves or draft animals.

[4] The argument is that this is shown by the evidence of rutted roads marked by cart wheels dating from the Roman Empire.

'"[5] The historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet (1,500 mm) apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts.