Background: This highway was built in the 1970s to run parallel to the trans-Alaskan pipeline. It runs from Livengood, Alaska, toward the Prudhoe Bay oil fields.
How It's Unique: The Dalton Highway makes the cut because of its extreme remoteness and desolate design. Nearly all of the 414 miles of the road are unpaved, loose stretches of gravel. The Bureau of Land Management cautions potential drivers that, "you'll see no restaurants, no gift shops, no service stations--just forest, tundra and mountains, crossed by a double ribbon of road and pipe." If the road was paved, Mahmassani says, maintaining it would be a nightmare--and Alaska's cold climate would riddle it with potholes. Also, gravel provides more friction for vehicles making the trek in inclement weather and doesn't ice over as easily as pavement.
Excerpt from http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/architecture/4338387
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