Dubai's World Trade Centre final bridge opens: 12-minute wait cut to 90 seconds as Dh696-million project completes

Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) opened the final bridge in the World Trade Centre area to traffic on October 30, completing a project costing more than Dh696 million. The former oval roundabout has been replaced with a surface-level intersection supported by five bridges, designed to cut average waiting time from up to 12 minutes to about 90 seconds.

What the final bridge carries

The last bridge is 1,000 metres long with two lanes and can handle about 3,000 vehicles an hour, carrying traffic from Al Majlis Street towards 2nd December Street. The RTA says that specific trip drops from six minutes to one. The project's five bridges total 5,000 metres: they also include a 1,000-metre bridge linking Sheikh Zayed Road to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Street towards Deira, and a 400-metre, two-lane bridge serving traffic from Dubai World Trade Centre towards the Za'abeel Palace Street and Al Mustaqbal Street intersection.

Overall effect

The RTA says the completed project raises capacity at the intersection by 33 per cent, serves 500,000 people and provides free-flowing traffic in all directions; a longer corridor journey falls from 13 minutes to six. The intersection, where Sheikh Zayed Road meets the roads serving Za'abeel, the Trade Centre, Downtown Dubai and routes to Deira, has long been one of the city's most persistent bottlenecks. The time savings are the RTA's forecasts and will become clearer after a few weeks of real traffic, particularly at peak hours and around large Trade Centre events; unfamiliar drivers and navigation apps catching up may cause brief disruption in the opening days.

This report is compiled from the RTA's opening announcement and local coverage of October 30.