The Hessa Street upgrade is open—but “four minutes” is not a promise for your whole commute. RTA opened the completed 4.5km section between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road on 19 April 2026. My take: this is worth paying attention to if that section sits on your route. It is not a reason to assume the separate extension towards Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road has also finished.
The opening announcement gives four lanes in each direction and total capacity of 16,000 vehicles an hour across both directions, up from 8,000. It reports the corridor journey falling from 15 to four minutes. Those are RTA’s figures for that section—not a timed drive by this magazine or a guarantee for every peak-hour trip.
I care more about the junction I actually use than another impressive project total. Below, I’ve separated the completed western section, Phase II and the cycling provision so the figures do not blur into one supposedly finished route.
What the completed Hessa Street upgrade changes
The original improvement contract was AED689 million, as recorded in RTA’s Al Masar issue 185. “About AED690 million” is a rounded description of that award, not a new price for every later Hessa Street project. Keep the phase beside the number.
Check the junction, not just the road name
A wider main road is welcome, but the entry and exit matter just as much to someone using it every day. My first check would be the exact movement: which road I join from, which direction I travel and where I leave. An improvement to one turn cannot establish that every nearby junction is now free of queues.
Four lanes each way: what the capacity figure means
For the completed 4.5km section, the four-lanes-each-way layout is the key change. The reported 16,000-vehicle hourly figure is the combined capacity in both directions, not the capacity of each direction. Capacity is also not a live traffic count.
The old “first phase now open in one direction” wording is out of date. The April announcement confirms the completed road and intersection bridges between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road. The separate Phase II must be assessed on its own status.
Completed road, Phase II and cycling provision: keep them separate
Here is the distinction I would use before changing a regular route. A bridge opening, the completion of a section and a contract for a later extension are different milestones.
| Which part? | What the evidence establishes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| Sheikh Zayed Road–Al Khail Road | The 4.5km road section and intersection bridges opened in April. | A four-minute door-to-door commute from every nearby district. |
| Al Khail Road–Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road | Phase II is separately listed in RTA’s ongoing-project brief. | That April’s opening completed this eastern extension. |
| Cycling and walking provision | Published route and bridge designs explain the intended connections. | A fresh on-the-ground check of every path entrance or continuous route. |
The four junctions in the completed section
The completed section’s four junctions are Sheikh Zayed Road, First Al Khail Street, Al Asayel Street and Al Khail Road. The previous list omitted Al Khail Road while describing four intersections. For a trip, match the turn you need rather than treat those four names as interchangeable access points.
The travel-time figure and its limits
Fifteen minutes down to four is an 11-minute difference for the stated section. That is a useful comparison, but not 11 minutes automatically removed from every resident’s journey. If the queue is before the upgraded stretch or after the exit, it still belongs in the door-to-door total. I would judge the benefit on the same route at comparable times.
Cycling and walking: the published provision
The cycling and walking provision deserves its own explanation. An open road lane does not, by itself, establish that every path, crossing or approach in a published plan is ready for a continuous trip.
The 13.5km route described by RTA
RTA’s February project announcement describes a 13.5km cycling and e-scooter route linking Al Sufouh and Dubai Hills, with connections serving Al Barsha and Barsha Heights and integration with Dubai Internet City Metro Station. That is the stated Phase I provision—not a route I have ridden or a live report on every access point.
The two shared bridges
The same announcement describes two cycling and pedestrian bridges, over Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road. Each is five metres wide: three for cycling and e-scooters, two for pedestrians. I’d check the actual entrance and onward path before making either bridge central to a first journey. A crossing and a continuous door-to-door route are not the same thing.
Opening dates and the separate extension
The dates matter because the earlier version mixed completed works, an intermediate opening and future construction. Here is the present distinction, checked against official material on 19 October 2026.
Open: the Sheikh Zayed Road–Al Khail Road section
Completed section: Sheikh Zayed Road to Al Khail Road, 4.5km, opened 19 April. RTA forecasts the population of areas served by this project exceeding 640,000 by 2030; that is not a count of people whose actual daily commute has already been measured as four minutes.
Phase II: Al Khail Road–Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road
Phase II: the current RTA projects page lists the 3km section from Al Khail Road to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, three major intersections, 8,835 metres of bridges and a 480-metre tunnel. The brief describes benefits for about 650,000 residents and a journey-time reduction from 24 to five minutes. Those are Phase II project benefits, not proof that the whole extension is open.
No Phase II completion date is established by the sources checked here. My advice is to follow the specific opening notice, not calculate a date from the contract award or assume April’s completion covers the eastern section too.
My five-trip commute check
To find out whether the upgrade helps your day, record five comparable journeys on the same route: departure time, road-entry time, exit time and final arrival. Keep disruptions such as a school-run detour separate. Compare the middle journey time as well as the worst one; one unusually quiet drive should not set the expectation for every morning.
For scale, an 11-minute saving twice a day over five days would total 110 minutes a week. That is illustrative arithmetic, not our measured saving or a promise that the official corridor figure applies to your trip. Replace it with the difference your own comparable journeys show.
My verdict
My verdict: a useful completed road upgrade, not the end of Dubai traffic. For someone travelling between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road, the April opening is the relevant news. For a JVC, Arjan or Al Barsha South journey, the precise junction and Phase II works deserve closer attention than the headline travel-time saving.
I’d compare the route I actually drive, not collect the largest saving from several different project announcements. Keep the phase, endpoints and direction together. That makes the Hessa Street news useful rather than another promise that the next commute must be effortless.
Source and route note: official project material checked on 19 October 2026. The road-opening figures, planned infrastructure and forecast benefits have been kept separate. No timed drive, cycle-route test or live diversion assessment is claimed. Follow current road signs and RTA notices for the journey you make.
