Highway infrastructure as an economic category: concept, content and innovative development

The article presents the main research results of the highway infrastructure as an economic category. The author emphasizes the role of highway infrastructure in economic development of the region and the country in general, and in raising of population’s living standards. According to the author, the high-priority task in development management of the regional highwayinfrastructure is the level equalization of road supportability in the regions of the country taking into account the peculiarities of their territorial organization. The article reveals such concepts as “infrastructure”, “highway infrastructure” and “innovative highway infrastructure”. The analysis of academic literature shows that the concept “highway infrastructure” is often used instead of the concepts “transport network” or “highway”, while the highway infrastructureincludes not only engineering constructions, designedforthe flow of traffic, - highways and engineering structures, but also highway service facilities. The author stresses the role of regional highways, stimulating development of the majority branches of economy, which contributes to creation of new production works and formation of additional workplaces. Thepaperstatesthe roleofpublicregulation inimplementingthe policyof highway infrastructure’s innovative development. The critical part in developing the transport system of the whole country, and the highway infrastructure in particular, belongs to the target programmes (federal and regional), as well as to the transport strategies of the Russian Federation. The author defines and sketches out the interconnection of the innovative development instruments at the federal and regional levels, and presents the innovative development scheme of the highway infrastructure. The article describes a number of topical issues restraining innovative activities in development of the highway infrastructure. The author makes reasoned conclusions about the necessity of developing the regional highway infrastructure, corresponding to the traffic and freight traffic flows of the region and the country in general.