You sound like you're sarcastic, but I know the road system in northern Norway was made with the explicit intention that it should be slow for an army to drive

You sound like you're sarcastic, but I know the road system in northern Norway was made with the explicit intention that it should be slow for an army to drive westwards. If you made a private east-west road during the cold war, you'd probably get some unpleasant encounters with officials. Of course, all development at this scale has to be sanctioned by the state, but in this particular case you'd be much more likely to have a Bad Time.