Dubai Opens 1,650-Metre Al Khaleej Street Tunnel in Deira, Linking Infinity Bridge Traffic

The tunnel has three lanes in each direction and can carry 12,000 vehicles an hour in both directions combined, the authority said. It gives traffic coming off the Infinity Bridge a signal-free run towards Deira and Al Mamzar, and back, along a stretch of waterfront where several large property and port projects are under way, including Dubai Islands, the Waterfront Market and Hamriya Port.

The opening is the latest stage of the Al Shindagha Corridor Improvement Project, one of the emirate's largest road schemes. The corridor covers 13 kilometres along Sheikh Rashid Road, Al Mina Street, Al Khaleej Street and Cairo Street, includes upgrades to 15 intersections and serves an estimated one million residents, according to Mattar Al Tayer, the RTA's director-general and chairman of its board of executive directors. He said completing the corridor would cut the journey along it from one hour and 44 minutes to 16 minutes by 2030.

Al Tayer said the tunnel would ease congestion on Al Khaleej Street and improve links between residential districts such as Abu Hail, Al Wuheida and Al Mamzar and the commercial and tourism developments around them.

Alongside the tunnel, the project converted roundabouts on Cairo Street and Al Wuheida Street into signal-controlled junctions, made traffic improvements on Cairo Street and connected the bridge ramp arriving from Dubai Islands to the new tunnel heading towards Al Mamzar.

The RTA said the work took close to 11 million working hours with no recorded injuries, involving 2,200 engineers, technicians and labourers and 350 pieces of heavy and light equipment. About 77% of the roughly 522,000 cubic metres of material dug out for the tunnel was reused in projects run by the authority and other bodies.

The tunnel walls will also carry a mosaic mural under the authority's "Dubai Tunnels" initiative. Designed by Emirati artist Maryam Al Hathboor, it depicts the Dubai skyline, including the Infinity Bridge, in the fine-line style used on banknotes, and is made of 36 million mosaic pieces.

In May the RTA reported the tunnel was 80% complete, according to the state news agency WAM. The authority finished the Bur Dubai side of the Shindagha corridor in 2025 and is now building a direct route into Dubai Islands from Bur Dubai: a bridge of about 1,425 metres across Dubai Creek, between the Infinity Bridge and the Port Rashid development, with four lanes in each direction and capacity for about 16,000 vehicles an hour. It will stand 18.5 metres above the water, leaving a 75-metre channel for shipping, and will include a pedestrian and cycle path with two lifts.