City Walk Traffic Diversions Begin as Al Safa Street Upgrade Starts: What Drivers Need to Know

RTA’s latest project video, reported on 13 September, confirms that work has moved into a traffic-diversion phase on Al Safa Street. The immediate goal is straightforward: keep vehicles moving while construction occupies the original road space. Traffic in both directions is being shifted onto newly constructed alternative routes running parallel to the development zone.

The change also reaches the junction connecting Al Satwa Street and Al Multaqa Street, one of the key movements around City Walk. Current reporting based on the RTA update says the intersection is being upgraded in both directions, the existing signalised movement is being changed to support more continuous flow, entry and exit capacity is being expanded, and dedicated free-flow U-turns are being introduced on Al Safa Street.

For a driver, that means the map may look familiar while the actual lane logic feels different. A road name has not disappeared and City Walk remains accessible, but the approach can involve shifted lanes, different turning points and temporary directional signs. This is exactly the sort of roadwork where following the car in front from memory is less useful than reading the signs in front of you.

The current diversion is tied to Al Safa Street but the practical impact is wider than one street name. The works sit in a busy central-Dubai district where local access, through-traffic and event traffic overlap. City Walk, Coca-Cola Arena, hotels, restaurants, schools, homes and commercial properties all sit within or close to the project area.

The RTA’s Al Safa Street project extends about 1,500 metres from Sheikh Zayed Road to Al Wasl Road. That short distance carries a lot of competing journeys: people entering City Walk, residents moving between Al Wasl and Sheikh Zayed Road, taxis and ride-hail vehicles making short local trips, event crowds heading to Coca-Cola Arena, and through-traffic trying to avoid slower central-Dubai streets.

Because the works affect both directions, there is no single “quiet side” of the project that everyone can default to. Your best approach depends on where you are coming from, your final entrance and what RTA has opened or shifted on the day. If you regularly approach from Al Satwa or use Al Multaqa to reach City Walk, allow time to learn the new pattern rather than assuming the old turn is still available in exactly the same way.

RTA’s advice is to plan ahead, follow the updated directional signs and observe the posted speed limits along the diversion. That sounds basic, but it matters more during a live construction phase because lane geometry and turning opportunities can change as work progresses.

If this route is part of a time-sensitive trip, build in a buffer. A meeting at City Walk, a school pickup, a restaurant booking or a show at Coca-Cola Arena can all be disrupted by a few extra minutes spent finding the correct access lane. Do not rely on a route screenshot saved days earlier; use a live navigation source and then give priority to physical RTA signs when the road layout and the map disagree.

For taxi and ride-hail trips, send the driver the exact venue or entrance rather than only “City Walk”. A large mixed-use precinct can have multiple practical drop-off points, and construction may make one approach easier than another. If you are being collected after an event, confirm the pickup location with the driver before walking to a kerb that may now sit behind a diversion barrier.

RTA’s S’hail service and the RTA Dubai app are designed for current journey planning across Dubai. They are useful cross-checks when you want to compare driving with public transport, but they still do not override temporary cones, lane arrows or police/RTA traffic control on the ground.

For residents and workers in Al Safa, Al Satwa and the City Walk orbit, the disruption is repetitive rather than dramatic. The risk is assuming yesterday’s lane arrangement will remain unchanged throughout the project. If your building has more than one practical access route, it is worth knowing the alternatives before peak periods rather than discovering them when traffic is already backed up.

Visitors face a different problem: they may be following a hotel map, event email or restaurant location pin that was created before the diversion. City Walk and Coca-Cola Arena have not vanished behind the roadworks, but the final few minutes can be different from the route someone remembers from a previous Dubai trip.

If you are attending a major event, arrive earlier than you normally would. Event traffic compresses a large number of arrivals into a narrow window, and temporary road geometry gives drivers less room to recover from a missed turn. Leaving can be just as important: agree on a pickup point, expect short-term congestion after an arena event and avoid stopping in a live traffic lane while waiting for a passenger or driver.

Pedestrians should also treat the construction zone as dynamic. The final Al Safa project includes improved walking and cycling infrastructure, but the temporary works are not the finished public realm. Use marked crossings and open footpaths rather than taking a shortcut through a closed work area.

RTA’s official project page describes a 1,500-metre improvement between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Wasl Road. The permanent scheme includes two bridges and two tunnels with a combined length of 3,120 metres, at-grade widening, intersection improvements and traffic-signal upgrades.

Al Safa Street is planned to widen from three signal-controlled lanes to four lanes in each direction. RTA expects the completed project to double corridor capacity from 6,000 to 12,000 vehicles per hour in both directions and cut the quoted travel time from 12 minutes to three minutes.

The first bridge is planned to carry traffic from Al Wasl Road towards Sheikh Zayed Road and Financial Centre Street. RTA says it will have four lanes, extend about 1,005 metres and handle approximately 6,400 vehicles an hour. A second two-lane bridge of about 360 metres will serve traffic from Al Satwa Street towards Sheikh Zayed Road and Financial Centre Street, with an estimated capacity of 2,800 vehicles an hour.

The two tunnels work in the opposite and cross-corridor directions. One 1,005-metre, two-lane tunnel will serve traffic from Sheikh Zayed Road and Financial Centre Street towards Al Wasl Road, while another tunnel at the Al Wasl Street–Al Safa Street intersection will extend about 750 metres with two lanes in each direction.

Those structures explain why a relatively short road section can generate a complicated construction phase. RTA is not simply resurfacing Al Safa Street; it is rebuilding how several major movements cross, merge and access the surrounding district.

RTA has repeatedly described the Al Safa corridor as a vital district serving tourism, culture, sport, education, residential and commercial uses. City Walk and Coca-Cola Arena are the obvious landmarks, but the road also connects hotels, restaurants, schools and neighbourhood traffic with Sheikh Zayed Road, Financial Centre Street and Al Wasl Road.

That mixed use is why construction management matters. A diversion that works for through-traffic can still be inconvenient for a driver trying to enter a specific car park or make a short neighbourhood movement. The current phase therefore includes changes to entry and exit points as well as the main traffic shift.

The long-term project also includes dedicated pedestrian walkways and cycling tracks, landscaped areas and new urban spaces. Those elements will not remove the need for roads, but they are intended to make the corridor work for more than vehicles once the heavy construction is finished.

In April 2026, RTA awarded a broader contract covering Umm Suqeim Street, Al Wasl Road, Al Safa Street and seven intersections along Jumeirah Street. The combined programme includes roughly 11 kilometres of bridges and tunnels plus at-grade widening, with the stated aim of increasing capacity and improving traffic flow as Dubai grows.

For drivers, the useful takeaway is that the Al Safa diversion should not be viewed in isolation. Other projects and traffic changes can affect the same wider network, especially for journeys between Jumeirah, Al Wasl, Sheikh Zayed Road, Downtown and Business Bay. A route that looks like an easy detour on a static map can run into another work zone or peak-period bottleneck.

That is also why we are not publishing one “magic detour” and pretending it will remain best throughout construction. Your most sensible route depends on origin, destination, time of day and the phase of works. The stable advice is to check live routing, read RTA signage and leave enough margin to change course safely.

The current reports describe traffic being shifted to alternative routes so movement can continue during construction. That is different from closing City Walk, shutting Al Safa Street completely or announcing that every access point is unavailable. Businesses, homes and venues in the district remain destinations; the road approach is what has changed.

We also have not found a clear public end date for this specific temporary layout in the current RTA material and 13 September reporting checked for this article. The permanent project has defined engineering goals, but construction traffic management can be staged and revised. A diagram or lane arrangement shared today should therefore be treated as current guidance, not a promise that every cone stays in the same place for months.

Finally, do not confuse the Al Safa Street improvement with other large RTA projects announced around Dubai. Several multi-billion-dirham corridors are under development at the same time. The figures in this guide — 1,500 metres, two bridges, two tunnels, 3,120 metres of structures, 12-to-three-minute travel-time target and 6,000-to-12,000 vehicle-per-hour capacity target — are the figures RTA publishes for this Al Safa Street improvement.

• Check a live route shortly before departure. Do not rely on a saved route or an old screenshot.
• Add extra time for a time-critical arrival. This matters especially for school runs, appointments, restaurant bookings and Coca-Cola Arena events.
• Follow the physical RTA signs and lane arrows. They reflect the live work zone better than memory.
• Keep to the posted diversion speed. Shifted lanes can have tighter geometry and workers may be close to traffic.
• Use the exact venue or entrance for taxi/ride-hail trips. “City Walk” alone may not be specific enough during changing access arrangements.
• Confirm your pickup point before an event ends. A driver may not be able to stop where you were collected on a previous visit.
• Expect the layout to evolve. Recheck RTA channels if you have not used the route for several days.

The inconvenience is real, but the permanent target is significant: much higher capacity, fewer signal-related delays and faster links between Sheikh Zayed Road, Financial Centre Street, Al Safa Street and Al Wasl Road. Until that infrastructure is finished, the safest assumption is that this is an active work zone — not a normal road with a few cones at the edge.