Global development of the HDM5 platform officially underway

The Highway Development and Management (HDM) Model has been a cornerstone tool for road agencies worldwide since its inception in 1968. Critical for road development and maintenance for 1,500 organizations in 100 countries, HDM supports investment planning, maintenance prioritization, and economic evaluations. It also includes strategic network analysis that serves governments, research institutions, and funding agencies. Many MDBs, including the World Bank Group, ADB, EIB, IsDB, AfDB, JICA, and others require that countries adopt HDM as pre-requisite to accessing finance for road transport and connectivity projects. 

Although the HDM - in all its versions through the years – has proven to be an important resource, it needs an upgrade. Over the past two decades, there have been rapid advancements in vehicle technology, pavement materials, design and construction techniques, and growing concerns over climate resilience and road safety. In response, we are pleased to announce that work of the 5th iteration of HDM officially kicked off on June 25, 2025, with the first release expected in 2027.

HDM5 is being conceived as a completely new platform leveraging modern technology and modular architecture to meet today’s evolving transport challenges. It will better support modern transport planning and investment decisions by adding new capacities:

• Improved climate resilience assessments and estimation of carbon emissions;
• Enhanced road safety impact evaluations;
• Re-engineered as a cloud-native, web-based software platform with a Software-as-a-Service model, ensuring scalability, flexibility, and improved user experience.

The next phase of the software will be developed through a knowledge partnership between the World Bank and the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), which is a founding research institution of HDM for over six decades. As a social purpose enterprise, TRL's mission is to develop sustainable, accessible, and safe transport solutions through rigorous research and innovation. This initiative will benefit from TRL's comprehensive capabilities in software product management, software delivery, technical support, and global deployment ensuring a modern, maintainable, and scalable solution for HDM5. 

Nicolas Peltier (Global Director, Transport Practice, World Bank):  " As social and environmental challenges become more complex,HDM5 will offer decision makers a technically sound and economically rigorous platform for evaluating the costs, benefits, and long-term performance of road infrastructure.”

Further, key partners established a steering committee chaired by the World Bank that includes PIARC, UK FCDO, ADB, IsDB, and EIB. So far, the development team has completed a series of key analytical activities in collaboration with academic and research institutions on gap analysis, modeling, and updates of functional requirements of HDM5, backed by a technical committee, and financially supported by GRSF, GFDRR, QII and GFDT.

Binyam Reja (Global Practice Manager, Transport Global Unit, World Bank): “The upgrade of HDM5 marks a collaborative international effort that takes a. major step forward in how we support countries to plan, prioritize, and finance road investments. We are pleased to partner with TRL whose legacy and technical leadership have shaped HDM from the beginning to bring this next-generation global public good to life.”

As HDM5 takes shape, it promises to not only keep pace with the evolving transport landscape but also drive smarter, safer, and more sustainable road development worldwide. With the collective expertise of global institutions, this new iteration will undoubtedly be a pivotal tool in shaping the future of road infrastructure management.