Between the 1930s and the 1970s, industrialization became the main objective of Mexican economic policies through a state-led import substitution strategy in which the source of growth was the expansion of the domestic market. Roads and highways were pivotal in this strategy as they reduced costs and made commodities exchange easier. An unprecedented investment in infrastructure and the consolidation of public institutions took place during this period. This process was also shaped by international development aid agencies as they intervened in the evaluation of development plans and strategies for transport infrastructure. However, small rural communities remained disarticulated due to the rules and policies established in the late 1920s and through 1940. Addressing the connection between industrial and consumption areas unintendedly resulted in a disarticulated communication network. Poor, isolated localities, where consumption was limited, were left isolated, contributing to the unequal distribution of growth during this period. In this chapter, I aim to underscore the need for a comprehensive approach to address the evolution of public institutionality, in charge of the rural localities’ isolation problems. Unemployment and isolation were attended together through labor-based road-building projects such as the Program for Rural Roads (PORC by its Spanish acronym) based on Schumacher’s idea of intermediate technology. The PORC eventually gave way to temporary employment social programs, but Mexican officials and economists clashed with international agencies in their evaluation methods and, ultimately, on what technologies were adequate to address development with a systematic approach, including so-called non-economic effects.