When cities repave roads, why do they leave the street ripped up for a couple weeks before repaving?

Question

I was told once it’s because cities project the job to take say 5 weeks, so they rip it up the first week, leave it for 3 weeks, then repave the last week. And they do this so everyone gets a paycheck for the full 5 weeks. Surely there has to be a different reason?

In: Other

Answer 1

Where I live, a local high way was ripped and paved the same day. They had a caravan of equipment 3 or 400 yards long. The leading machines ripped the old asphalt, the next cleaned it up, then the pavers laid the new asphalt followed by the rollers. They did one lane at a time. They finished several miles in a single day.