In the 18th century, as civilisation was becoming refined, Europe became hegemonic and, in the richest countries, road networks began to look much as they do nowadays. More and more people knew how to read and write, so there is much more historical data about those days.

In France, a decree from 1705 ordained that the line of cobbled roads should be as straight as possible. In 1713, the functions of eleven inspectors general of roadways and engineering structures were defined. In 1716, a director general was appointed and the department of the Ponts et Chaussées (Department of Civil Engineering) was created. One could only enter it if he had a title or a recommendation. The same year, the project of a road that would connect Clermont and Languedoc was decreed. In 1717, the levy of an extraordinary tax provided one million pounds for the network. As soon as he was appointed in 1720, the Superintendent of Finances, John Law (1671 - 1729) decided that the roads should be sixty feet wide. In 1721, an administrator was put in charge of organising the Ponts et Chaussées in detail. So as to restrict the load per axle, a decree from 1724 set the maximum number of horses which could be harnessed to a two-wheeled cart at four from October 1 to April 1, and three the rest of the time. Many canal projects were undertaken - the canals of the Loing (1719), of Picardie (junction Escault - Somme in 1724), of Bourgogne (1729), of Bas Poitou (1732). But the road network expanded too. Important bridges were erected, such as the one by Jacques V Gabriel (1667 - 1742) over the Loire in Blois in 1724. In 1732, the road started in the 12th century on the Loire levee in Anjou (built in AD 814) was finished. In 1735, the road from France to Strasbourg (annexed in 1681) through the Saverne Pass was completed. In 1737, the Superintendent of Finances and the Director General of the Ponts et Chaussées, Philibert Orry (1689 - 1747), sent the administrators a detailed directive about using the corvée (maximum thirty days a year) for the reconstruction and maintenance of roads which were classified in five categories. Until the French Revolution a good many of the royal roads existed thanks to this institution. In 1738, relay posts were established along the roads from Paris to Nantes and from Paris to Brest. The same year, Orry asked the civil engineers to map the important roads of the kingdom.

The goal of French politics wasn't to extend the territory anymore. In his "Treatise on Politics ", dating from 1737, René-Louis d'Argenson (1694 - 1757), who was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1744 until 1747, wrote: " The time of conquests is over. France…can surely be satisfied with its extent and its enlarging. It is finally time to start ruling after having spent so much time trying to get something to rule. ". Except for some small enclaves, only Dombes (1762), Lorraine (1766) and Corsica (1768) were actually annexed before the French Revolution. From 1743 until he died, Daniel-Charles Trudaine (1703 - 1769), succeeding Marie-François de Paule marquis d'Ormesson (1710 - 1775), was put in charge of the detailed organisation of the Ponts et Chaussées. In 1744, he created a Bureau des Dessinateurs (Draughtsmen's Office) to centralise the plans of the provinces. From 1747 on, he gathered the engineer foremen and the inspectors general together every Sunday and entrusted Jean-Rodolphe Perronet (1708 - 1794) with the secretaryship of this Assembly. He also instructed him to lead and oversee the geographers and the draughtsmen who made plans and maps of the kingdom's roads and important land routes. Later, Trudaine decided that, before they became assistant engineers or assistant inspectors, the applicants should have spent sufficient time in Perronet's Office. The same year, Louis XV (1710 - 1774) instructed the astronomer, César-François Cassini de Thury (1714 - 1784), to map the kingdom. The latter used the plots of the organisation created by Vauban (cf. supra). The first map, the one of Paris, was presented to the King in 1756. The work was carried on by his son Jacques-Dominique comte de Cassini (1748 - 1845) and the last plates were engraved in 1817.

Many stone bridges were built; some of which still remain and carry today's traffic. Let's name some of Perronet's who was the initiator of arches with a very wide span: the bridge built over the south branch of the Loire in Nantes in 1757, the ones in Château-Thierry in 1765, in Nogent- sur-Seine in 1766, the other in Neuilly-sur-Seine built between 1768 and 1772, the ones in Chantilly (1770 - 1771), Pont-Saint-Maxence (1771 - 1780) and the Pont de la Concorde in Paris. The project of the latter dated from 1771 and was carried out in 1791. The bridge itself still exists, after having been enlarged in 1931.

Towards 1750, the Assembly of the Ponts et Chaussées attended to the technical aspects of pavement construction: thickness of the pavement, camber of the road and maximum vertical gradient. New roads were laid out, for instance between Paris and Nantes in 1750. Four hundred kilometres of road were built during the reign of Stanislas I Leszczynsky (1677 - 1766) in the Lorraine duchy, which was de facto under royal administration (indirect taxes for instance were collected by farmers-general). The road from Lorraine to Strasbourg through Schirmeck was completed in 1770. But the road to Auvergne through Vivarais, which was started in 1759 in the States of Languedoc, wasn't finished before the French Revolution broke out. In 1782, Perronet, who had been nominated engineer foremaster in 1773 and whose Office had been called Ecole Royale des Ponts et Chaussées in 1775 (Royal School for Civil Engineering), recorded 27,000 km of built roads, three quarters of which were dependent on the corvée. A new organisation was created in Limousin, though: in 1768, roadmenders were appointed by purchasers. In 1779, twelve labourers were paid by the States of Mâconnais to maintain 50 km of the road between Paris and Lyon. In 1783, a decree limited to six the number of horses drawing four wheeled carts and forbade the use of pointed nails on iron tyres. While road works were undertaken, canals were developed too: the canal from Givors to Rive-de-Gier (1760), the Ardennes Canal (junction Aisne-Bar, 1762), improvements to the Isle (1763), the Charente (1767), the Garonne (1782) and the Canal du Centre (1783).

Innovations from those days were to be quite important in relation to road engineering later on. Indeed, in 1787, Louis-Alexandre de Cessart (born in 1719) invented the road roller and John Wyatt (died in 1766) built the first bascule bridge in Birmingham in 1741. In 1709 in Coalbrookdale, Abraham Darby I replaced wood with coke in a furnace used to obtain cast iron, which enabled him to triple its capacity. In Sheffield in 1740, Benjamin Huntsman (1704 - 1776) first produced steel (intended to be used in the manufacture of clock springs) by melting together cast iron and iron in crucibles of his own creation. In 1741, James Findlay built a footbridge over the Tees in the north of England: it had a 21 metre wide span and was suspended on iron chains. The improvement of the burning process permitted the production of slaked limes. In 1756, John Smeaton (1724 - 1792), mixed some of those limes with puzzolana and obtained a mortar which was as hard as the Portland stone. It was called the Portland cement. The first metal bridge, the Iron Bridge over the Severn in Coalbrookdale, was built from 1777 to 1780 by Abraham Darby III (1750 - 1791) in cast iron elements fastened by keys, as in a wooden structure . Similar bridges were erected in the Netherlands and in Magdebourg in 1791. In 1784, Henry Cort invented the puddling which made it possible to get iron by stirring liquid iron cast with oxydising agents in an oven. In 1783, air transportation was born: a balloon filled with heated air devised by the Mongolfier brothers Joseph-Michel (1740 - 1810) and Etienne (1745 - 1799) took off, later with the passengers François pilâtre de Rozier (1754 - 1785) and François-Laurent marquis d'Arlandes (1742 - 1809) on board. In the 18th century, another invention was to be of consequence later on. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen (1663 - 1720) built a steam engine for the pumping out of mines. This kind of motor enabled Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1725 - 1804) to build the first cart that wasn't drawn by animals in 1770.

In Great Britain, the 1707 Act of Union between England and Scotland founded the United Kingdom which undertook the increase of its maritime power and the establishing of its colonial empire. The Industrial Revolution started in 1760 with coal winning, the development of metallurgy, the use of spinning, weaving, printing machine, some of them being activated by steam engines. Craft workshops were supplanted by factories. The ready supply of building material, coal, raw material and the distribution of the production led to the construction of many canals and land routes.

In the politically split German area, the many tollgates were the reason why long distance traffic was so little intense and the roads so mediocre.

In China, rebellions, corruption and the court's squandering brought about a wane, which put a stop to the maintenance of roads.

Peter the Great (1672 - 1725) wanted Russia to become a modern state. He had mines, blast furnaces and forges implanted in the Urals. In 1767, Russia exported two thirds of the 54.000 tons of iron it produced. But that traffic was carried down the rivers coming from the Urals, on the Volga and on the Vychni-Volotchec Canal built in 1706 up to Saint-Petersburg, which had been founded on a territory taken by the Swedes in 1703

In all the thirteen British colonies of North America, whatever their administrative status was (of the Crown, by charter or in the ownership of companies), roads were bad and limited within the borders of each colony, but for one - the road going from Boston to the South via Philadelphia and Baltimore. After the Treaty of Paris (1783), the thirteen united states of America were independent and the Constitution from January 1789 instituted a federal State. But the young Republic couldn't undertake a road policy until the 19th century. In Canada, pioneers used the same means as the Indians to convey pelts - portage tracks and canoe teams.

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