To join a port to an inland mine site.

Once you have a road where once there was no road and no easy access to the land within then people can follow.

> But nobody builds a road to nowhere.

See: Gunbarrel Highway - a road system from a launch point out into "nowhere" in order to retrieve test missiles.

And see my point here about “linear” roads (connecting point to point) vs space-filling ones (providing access to an entire grid of houses). In short, an animal can exist very easily in the proximity of a single highway, but existing surrounded by development is a much harder task.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38877692

I'm at a loss as to why you even bought it up. My intial comment here:

     roads | train lines built to connect A and B will often be followed by small townsites along the way and the spread of "off the grid" living at blocks T junctioning dirt road access from the new A <--> B route.