RTA widens 700m of Sheikh Zayed Road to seven lanes, boosting throughput by 16%

Drivers tackling Sheikh Zayed Road’s evening crawl have a small but meaningful win. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has completed a 700-metre road widening near the Umm Al Sheif Street exit, taking the carriageway from six to seven lanes and boosting capacity by 16% to handle up to 14,000 vehicles per hour. The tweak targets one of the corridor’s pinch points and is designed to smooth the merge for traffic arriving from Abu Dhabi as you approach the Umm Al Sheif junction. In plain terms: fewer elbows at the bottleneck, and a steadier flow through a stretch that’s notorious at rush hour.

Sheikh Zayed Road doesn’t need an introduction to anyone who drives in Dubai; it’s the city’s main artery, flanked by residential communities, schools, hotels and some of the country’s most recognisable landmarks, Dubai International Financial Centre, Burj Khalifa, and Dubai Mall line this powerhouse of a highway. That mix of commuters, shoppers and visitors makes every incremental upgrade matter, and the RTA says this widening is part of a rolling programme to optimise traffic flow and cut congestion across the network.

Why this location? The junction around Umm Al Sheif has long been a pressure point, especially in the evening peak when overlapping traffic streams jostle for position. By adding a continuous extra lane and eliminating overlap points, the RTA expects to reduce turbulence in the flow and improve safety by lowering density through the merge. If you do the daily dash up from the south, the difference should be most noticeable as you draw level with the exit, that subtle shift from stop-start to steady-roll that decides whether you make the next green.

If you’re driving this way in the coming days, keep an eye on the refreshed lane markings and signage near the junction and give yourself a trip or two to get used to the new alignment.