英文The road (highway)The road is one kind of linear construction used for travel。

It is made of the roadbed，the road surface, the bridge, the culvert and the tunnel. In addition, it also has the crossing of lines, the protective project and the traffic engineering and the route facility。

The roadbed is the base of road surface, road shoulder，side slope, side ditch foundations. It is stone material structure, which is designed according to route's plane position .The roadbed, as the base of travel, must guarantee that it has the enough intensity and the stability that can prevent the water and other natural disaster from corroding.The road surface is the surface of road. It is single or complex structure built with mixture。

The road surface require being smooth，having enough intensity，good stability and anti—slippery function. The quality of road surface directly affects the safe, comfort and the traffic。

The route marking is one kind of traffic safety facility painted by oil paint or made by the concrete and tiles on high—level, less high—type surface。

Its function is coordinating the sign to make the effective control to the transportation, directing the vehicles skip road travel, serving unimpeded and the safe purpose. Our country’s road route marking has the lane median line，the traffic lane boundary，the curb line，the parking line，the conduction current belt, the pedestrian crossing line，the four corners center circle，the parking azimuth line. The route marking has the continual solid line, the broken line and the arrow indicator and its color uses the white or the yellow.The arch of bridge is the structure which strides over rivers，mountain valley and channel。

It is made generally by steel rod，concrete and stone。

The tunnel is the cave which connects both sides of the road。

The technique of this construction is very complex，the cost of the projects is higher than common road .However, it reduces the driving distance between two places，enhances the grade of the technical in building the road and guarantees the cars can drive fast and safely, thus reduces the cost of transportation。

The protective project is to protect and consolidate the roadbed in order that it can guarantee the intensity and the stability of the road，thus maintains the automobile to pass through safely。

In order to guarantee that safe operation of the highway transportation, besides the highway engineering and the vehicles performance，it must have some traffic signal，route marking, each kind of director and demonstrate facility. The highway marking uses certain mark and draw symbol, simple words and number, then installs in the suitable place to indicate the front road's condition or the accident condition including the informational sign，the warning signal, the prohibitory sign，the road sign and so on。

The road which Join city，village and industry，mainly are used for the automobile and has certain technical standard and the facility path can be called the highway。

“The highway” in Chinese is the modern view, but it was not existed in old day。

It gets the name from the meaning of being used for the public traffic. Where are the human, there are the road. It is a truth。

However, the road is not the highway。

If we talk the history about the road，the earliest highway is that built by the old Egyptians for making the pyramid. Next is the street which built by the Babylon people about 4000 years ago. All these are much earlier than our country。

About 500 B.C。

, the Persian Empire road has linked up East and West, and connected the road to China. It is the earliest and longest Silk Road. 2500 years ago, it might be the greatest road 。

The ancient Rome Empire’s road was once celebrated；it took Rome as the center，all around built 29 roads。

Therefore it came out one common saying: every road leads to Rome。

The road’s construction is the process to enhance technique and renew the building materials。

The earliest is the old road，it is easy to build but it is also to destroy。

If there is too much water or cars，it will be uneven and even be destroyed. The macadam road appeared in the Europe which outbalanced the earliest mud road. Then the brick road appeared which was earlier than China. It was one great breach that we molded bitumen on the macadam road。

From ancient times to the present, China has courier station and courier road，while the first more advance road was the one that from Long Zhou in Gang Xi to Zhen Nan Guan in 1906.The difference between Road and pathThe path is the project for each kind of vehicles and people to pass through. According to its function，we can divide it into the urban road, the road，the factories and mines path，the forest road and county road。