DerzhdorNDI SE is Ukraine's official research institution for the construction, repair, and maintenance of highways and transportation infrastructure. It was established on April 15, 1926 under the Ukrainian Local Transport Administration, although it did not take on the name of DerzhdorNDI SE until 1991. The institution exists to improve road conditions through research studies. DerzhdorNDI SE's research has been instrumental in improving the quality of Ukraine's roads and decreasing the cost of construction.
The establishment of DerzhdorNDI SE can be traced to a series of spinouts from the original organization that was established in 1926. The specific branch of DerzhdorNDI SE was not established or named as such until 1991, when it took on the name as one of the many spinouts. The original organization was reorganized into the Research Bureau of the Main Directorate of Highways and Soil Roads in 1929, under the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Several divisions have formed out of the DerzhdorNDI SE. In 1930, the Scientific Research Institute of Trackless Roads and Transport was formed. In 1932, the automotive scientific direction was removed from DerzhdorNDI SE, and the Research Institute of Wagon Roads and Road Structures was formed to address the need.
During its early years, DerzhdorNDI SE focused its research on the development of the technology for improved pavements made with oil bitumen and coal tar. Research efforts were hampered during World War II and were not resumed until Kyiv's liberation in 1943. In 1953, DerzhdorNDI SE joined with the Central Research Institute of Motor Transport and became the Ukrainian Road Transport Research Institute of the Ministry of Road and Transport Economy of the USSR, from which the State Automobile and Road Research Institute was established in 1965; in 1970 on the same basis, the State Road Research Institute was established. It was renamed in 1991 as the State Road Research Institute, or DerzhdorNDI SE.
