Road

A road is a construction that paves over a large section of flat terrain. Roads are most commonly used to give caravans a reliable path to your fortress from the map's edge. They are not strictly necessary, as a wagon is entirely capable of making its way over dirt or grass provided a 3-wide path exists the entire way; but without a road, you run the risk of trees growing in positions that prevent a wagon from squeezing through. A dwarf with the Architect labor must haul any materials to the site and design the structure before it can be finished by any available dwarf with Road Building labor enabled.

Dirt roads can be constructed for free on any soil, removing mud and other contaminants, and removing shrubs and trees and preventing new ones from growing. However, they wear away over time, and have to be reconstructed periodically. Depending on the size of the road, this can be a hassle.

Paved roads can be constructed with any building material, including stone, blocks, wood and metal bars. These roads are permanent, and use less material than paving the same space with constructed floors - yet paved road is a building, not a construction. The number of units of material needed to construct a road is the number of tiles the road would cover plus one (tiles/4 + 1).

Building with stone blocks instead of natural stone results in Smooth paved roads instead of Rough paved roads. If there's a mix, it defaults to rough.