What is a judicial road?

Where I grew up in Minnesota, we had a semi-major road known as "Judicial Road". I too used to think the name was a general adjective of some kind (i.e. that there was a type of road known as a "judicial" road, and this just happened to be one example). However, I later read that the road got this name because it was built for the express purpose of giving judges a faster, safer route between the courthouses in Savage and Lakeville in the late 1800s.