Hessa Street Upgrade to Cut Dubai Travel Time to Five Minutes
Serving around 650,000 residents, the upgrade adds 8,835 metres of bridges, a 480 metre tunnel and new interchanges, plus a 10.4 km cycling and e-scooter link from Dubai Hills to Dubai Motor City.
Phase Two of the Hessa Street Development has been awarded by Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority, expanding a 3 km stretch between Al Khail Road and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road as part of a wider traffic improvement plan.
The project will widen the corridor to four lanes in each direction, doubling capacity from 4,000 to 8,000 vehicles per hour per direction. According to the authority, journey times along the route are expected to fall from 24 minutes to five minutes, benefiting around 650,000 residents across 10 communities, including Jumeirah Village Circle, Al Barsha South, Arjan, Dubai Science Park, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Barsha Heights, The Greens and Emirates Hills.
Phase Two includes 8,835 metres of bridges and a 480-metre, two-lane tunnel to carry traffic from Jumeirah Village Circle towards Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road. Three key junctions will be converted into multilevel interchanges, including the Al Khail Road–Hessa Street intersection.
The upgraded interchange will incorporate grade-separated collector roads, a second-level two-lane ramp from Hessa Street to Al Khail Road towards Abu Dhabi, and a third-level flyover from Al Khail Road to Hessa Street towards Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road. It is designed to handle up to 18,200 vehicles per hour. Additional ramps and bridges connecting Al Khamila Street, Jumeirah Village Circle and Al Barsha South are expected to accommodate between 11,200 and 16,800 vehicles per hour.
Al Hadaeq Street will also be widened over 2.5 km into a dual carriageway with three lanes in each direction, replacing existing roundabouts with signalised intersections to improve traffic flow.
The development further includes a 10.4 km dedicated cycling and e-scooter track linking Dubai Hills and Dubai Motor City. This will complement Phase One’s 13.5 km cycling and e-scooter track connecting Al Sufouh to Dubai Hills, which also introduced five-metre-wide pedestrian and cycling bridges over Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road.
Under Phase One, four major intersections were upgraded and the road was widened to four lanes in each direction. A key bridge opened earlier reduced travel time between Hessa Street and Al Khail Road from 15 minutes to three minutes.
