My street's original surface was concrete, laid in slabs, which at some point in time was tarmacked over. I've seen it fully resurfaced twice. The first time, the joints between slabs, quickly reappeared, through the new tarmac, potholes soon appeared, and the surface deteriorated rapidly.
The second time, just a couple of years ago, they said they were planning to use some new, high-tech process, as a trial, to see how that performed. They spent a week, scrapping all the old tarmac off, back to bare concrete, then began laying the new surface. The new surface was a pale brown, when first laid, then over the following days changed colour to a black. Unlike previous attempts, there has been absolutely no deterioration at all, since it was laid. The usual cracks between slabs have not reappeared.