Road construction (Vietnam)
1) put some wood between the barrels of asphalt and start a fire so that the asphalt will melt and become liquid. If no wood is available, use anything that can burn, like old tires. Bonus points if you can burn something really toxic.
2) When the asphalt start melting, scoop some at the top and pour it on the wood. Asphalt burns well, so this will help melting the rest of the asphalt.
3) Repeat step 2 until the asphalt in entirely melted in the barrels. This will take several hours and produce a really nice plume of toxic smoke. If you are lucky, you will only need to burn 30% of your asphalt to melt the rest, so you have 70% asphalt left to spread on the road.