"Road crews have been known to bury foil-wrapped potatoes under fresh
asphalt, then come back and exhume them several minutes later . . . "

Having worked on a road crew, I'm not entirely sure how that would work.
Hot mix asphalt comes out of the mix plant at between 450 to 500 degrees
fahrenheit, and has to be laid down and shaped before it drops below
about 300 degrees. If it drops below about 275, it won't compress
properly with the rollers and you have to scrape it back up and usually
dump it (it's very hard to reheat properly). It cools rapidly; you've
only got about 15 minutes with a 5 ton load from plant to worked before
it cools too much.

Now, I suppose, if it's a small 5 ton dump truck, they could stick it in
there right after the mix plant and pull it out at the work site, but
shifting would cause issues and if any of the tack oil got under the
foil...