Recently the discussion on the economic impacts of highway development has become the point of interest in national economic science. Though this question relative to US Interstate Highway System has been assessed through many studies and approaches, most of them, for some reasons, can not be adjusted to Russian economy. This study is to propose new regional approach and brand-new transport accessibility coefficient, which is the key-stone of model.

This coefficient is based on the inter-regional trade statistics, and statistically correlates with increments in regional economic fundamentals, such as constant price GRP, investment and retail sales. Then the small regional level model is presented.

The model supports a conclusion that the development of Federal highway network should have a significant positive impact on regional economic growth. Road development might incur incremental 10,3–14% boost in GDP growth depending on the competitive capacity of national products on the domestic market.