Thanks for the link nessie. Obviously in assuming the BER was open by now, I did not realize how bad it has become. But the key point is the politicians getting involved.
For a time I had a second residence in Spain... (so let's talk developing country.
).
If I wanted to drive there... (as I was still in the Stuttgart area at the time)... I was faced with a few choices. My destination was just to the west of Malaga. Paying the motorway tolls in France and Spain, (plus buying a sticker from the Schweizerlis), seemed less evil than fighting the traffic on the national roads (highways). The problem was there was a stretch between Bilbao and Madrid on the north route... and Murcia and Malaga on the coastal route, where there was no motorway.
To frame the story you have to realize it takes the Germans years to build 10 km of an autobahn. But the surface is concrete. It is graded to perfection... (you hardly have to steer the corners). And steep inclines are removed by monster valley bridges (Talbrücken)... and lots of earth and rock removing. For the start of the Expo in Seville, the Spanish put up those missing motorways in no time flat. They were suddenly there. True to form though, these roads were falling apart only a couple of years later.