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Certainly energy intensive since the asphalt needs to be broken/ground up, moved back to an asphalt plant, then heated back to molten.


Not back to a plant: there are road resurfacing machines that tear up the existing surface, run it through a dirt and dust separator, recombine it with tar[1] at temperature, and then put it right back down. Yes, there is thermal, chemical, and mechanical energy being used to do all of that but it's a fraction of resurfacing a cement-based road.

[1] I'm not a road engineer so I'm not 100% sure what substance is used to stick the parts of the asphalt back together when it's put back down but it looks and smells like hot tar.


It's bitumen which is a form of petroleum




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