2005 Report Card on America’s Infrastructure

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) publishes a biennial report card on the condition of US infrastructure including roads.  In 2001 ASCE assigned a grade of D+ to the condition of US roads.  In 2003 they reported that the trend for the condition of US roads was downward, and in 2005 the ASCE revised the grade to D.  The 2005 Report Card on America’s Infrastructure reported that poor roads cost $275 per motorist.  That’s $54 Billion per year.  US motorists
spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic.  That is a $63
billion a year hit to the economy.  Even more importantly, poor roads are dangerous.  There are more than 43,000 fatalities on US roadways
every year.  The FHWA reports that outdated and substandard
road and bridge design, pavement conditions, and safety features are
factors in 30% of all fatal highway accidents. 

To me this makes it clear that this is a critical problem and that one of the key requirements for maintaining a national highway and road system is the ability to track the condition, traffic, maintenance history and other key parameters in order to prioritize maintenance of a highway system. 

National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)

The NHAI is a relatively young organization, but it has already managed the construction of significant part of the Golden Quadrilateral, India’s equivalent of the US Interstate Highway System. NHAI is an autonomous organization responsible not only for the development, but also the maintenance of national highways in India.  In a forward looking decision, the NHAI decided to develop a road information system, called appropriately RIS to track and monitor the condition of the National Highway system.