The Highway Development and ManagementModel (HDM-4) is a software system for evaluating optionsfor investing in road transport infrastructure. Worldwide,the HDM-4 model is most commonly used as a basis forfeasibility studies, in which a road project is evaluated interms of its economic viability. A more comprehensive typeof evaluation based on HDM-4 is a network evaluation, whichassesses an entire road network to help decision makers intheir strategic planning of road investments and/or thedefinition of a rational road works program, with or withoutbudget constraints. A network economic evaluation is themost challenging use of the model, but the effort is welljustified given the potential savings to be achieved ontransport costs by comparing various project alternativesand performing an optimization under budget constraints.This technical note presents the author's experienceapplying HDM-4 and its predecessor, the Highway Design andMaintenance Standards Model (HDM-III), to road networkstrategic planning evaluations in developing countries, withthe objective of providing recommendations and tools to thereaders who are involved in strategic planning activities.The purpose of the evaluations, the methodology itself, theinput requirements, the challenges, and the presentation ofresults to decision makers are each reviewed in turn.
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