Transport infrastructure is an essential component of any economy, which can positively or adversely affect the welfare and development of a town, city, region or country. If transport infrastructure are planned and implemented in an efficient manner, they produce economic and social benefits that create increased access to markets, employment, investment, as well as initiating a multiplier effect that will be felt through the entire economy. However, if transport infrastructure is deficient, they can result in economic and socio-economic loss from not having the correct transportation systems in place to allow the economy to perform to its optimum.

Transportation has been closely aligned and related to economic growth and development since the time of the industrial revolution. As each stage of human development has evolved, specific transport styles and infrastructure have developed and adapted to allow the expansion of local, regional and national economies. One of the lessons learnt from the past that needs to be recognised in today’s development and adaptation of transport infrastructure, is that no one transportation type is solely responsible for past growth; rather a combination of transport types and the infrastructure that has been developed to support them. Through human civilisation, mobility has been one of the most elementary characteristics of economic growth, facilitating the transport of people and products.

The economical importance of existing and future transport infrastructures can be viewed at both macro and micro levels. Macroeconomic benefits of efficient transportation systems relate to the economy as a whole, and links to the level of productivity, output, income generation and employment of a region or country. Comparatively, microeconomic benefits of efficient transportation systems relate to the movement of products, consumers and producers, as well as the physical cost of this movement. When transport infrastructure is planned for and implemented in the correct manner, the infrastructure created provides a web of links that enable the entire range of the factors of production, that lead to economic growth, to work together in a synergetic manner. In other words, the elements of production and economic growth; being space, capital and labour, experience significant improvements in their ability to perform and create stimulus to the economy when personal mobility and distribution capabilities are at their optimum.

With transport infrastructure being vital in the production of economic, social and socio-economic outcomes, it is vital that those charged with the responsibility of planning and implementing the systems are well experienced and have the capability of turning plans and construction into synergetic transportation systems that not only enhance, but promote economic growth.