Al Khaleej Street Tunnel Opens: Deira & Dubai Islands

Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA, the emirate's road and transit authority) opened the Al Khaleej Street Tunnel on Sunday, 8 November 2026. The tunnel runs for 1,650 metres from the end of the Infinity Bridge ramp in Deira, the older trading district on the northern side of Dubai Creek, to the junction of Al Khaleej Street and Al Wuheida Street. It has three lanes in each direction and can carry up to 12,000 vehicles an hour across both directions. For investors, this is a piece of infrastructure that changes daily access to a part of the city that is being rebuilt around new waterfront communities. For agents, it is a fact you can quote in a viewing brief, as long as you quote it the way the RTA printed it.

Primary sources: Emarat Al Youm, 8 November 2026 (Arabic, RTA announcement) and Al Bayan, 8 November 2026 (Arabic), with the project description on the RTA project page. English context: Gulf News and Khaleej Times.

First, the words

RTA: the Roads and Transport Authority, the Dubai government body that plans and builds roads, bridges, tunnels and public transport.
Infinity Bridge: the arch bridge across the mouth of Dubai Creek that links Bur Dubai, on the southern bank, to Deira, on the northern bank.
Al Shindagha Corridor: the RTA's 13-kilometre road improvement programme along Sheikh Rashid Road, Al Mina Street, Al Khaleej Street and Cairo Street, of which this tunnel is one stage.
Free-flow traffic: a road section with no traffic lights or roundabouts, so cars do not have to stop between two points.
Signal-controlled intersection: a junction run by traffic lights rather than a roundabout.
Off-plan: buying a home from the developer before it is built, usually in instalments linked to construction; handover is the moment the finished unit is delivered to the buyer.

What the RTA opened today

According to the RTA announcement carried by Emarat Al Youm, the tunnel gives drivers coming off Infinity Bridge a free-flowing route into Deira and towards Al Mamzar, and the reverse. The works also turned the roundabouts on Cairo Street and Al Wuheida Street into signal-controlled intersections, added traffic improvements along Cairo Street, and connected the bridge ramp coming from Dubai Islands to the new tunnel in the direction of Al Mamzar.

The RTA also published delivery figures: close to 11 million work hours since the start of the project with no injuries recorded, around 2,200 engineers, technicians and workers, and 350 pieces of heavy and light equipment. About 77% of the roughly 522,000 cubic metres excavated for the tunnel was reused in RTA and other government projects. Under the Dubai Tunnels initiative, the tunnel walls will carry a mosaic mural by Emirati artist Maryam Al Hathboor that draws the Dubai skyline in the engraved style of banknotes, including Infinity Bridge; Emarat Al Youm reports 36 million mosaic pieces, while some English outlets print 35 million, and we follow the Arabic primary.

The bigger corridor around it

RTA Director General Mattar Al Tayer described the tunnel as part of the Al Shindagha Corridor, which covers 13 kilometres and 15 intersections. The RTA says the full corridor will serve around one million people and is expected to cut a journey of 1 hour 44 minutes to 16 minutes by 2030. The districts and projects it names along the corridor are Dubai Islands, Dubai Waterfront, Dubai Maritime City and Port Rashid.

Al Tayer also said Deira is seeing fast residential and commercial expansion, naming Abu Hail, Al Wuheida and Al Mamzar as areas with new residential and tourism destinations, alongside Dubai Islands, Waterfront Market and Al Hamriya Port. That is the official reason the authority gives for the investment: the road network has to keep pace with the homes and visitors arriving in this part of the city.

Two more phases sit around today's opening. The RTA finished the Bur Dubai side of the Al Shindagha Corridor in 2025. It is now building a direct entry and exit for Dubai Islands from the Bur Dubai side: a bridge across Dubai Creek between Infinity Bridge and the Port Rashid development area, about 1,425 metres long, with four lanes in each direction, a capacity of about 16,000 vehicles an hour, a clearance of 18.5 metres above the water and a 75-metre navigation channel for ships. It will include a pedestrian and cycling path with two lifts and about 2,000 metres of surface roads to connect it to the existing network. The announcement does not give an opening date for that bridge, so any date you hear should be checked against the RTA.

What it means for you

If you are an investor

Infrastructure is one of the few inputs to a location decision that is public, dated and verifiable. Today's opening is finished work, not a promise, and it sits in a corridor the RTA says will serve around a million people. If you are looking at Dubai Islands, Al Mamzar, Abu Hail or the Deira waterfront, the practical question is how a resident actually reaches work, schools and the rest of the city, and this tunnel removes stops on one of the main routes off Infinity Bridge. Keep the timeline honest: the 16-minute journey is the RTA's 2030 target for the whole corridor, and the Dubai Islands creek bridge is still under construction. Better access can support demand over time, but a road opening on its own is not a price forecast, so pair it with registered sale and rent data before you commit. For how we read those numbers, see our guide to last week's Dubai REST tape, where Dubai Maritime City appeared in the top ten areas by sale value.

If you are an agent

This is a clean, sourced sentence for any client looking at the north side of the creek: the RTA opened the 1,650-metre Al Khaleej Street Tunnel on 8 November 2026, with three lanes each way from Infinity Bridge into Deira and towards Al Mamzar. Quote the figures as the RTA printed them, name the 2030 target as a target, and do not turn a traffic statistic into a promise about resale value or rental yield. If the client is buying off-plan on Dubai Islands, separate what is open today, the tunnel and the Bur Dubai side of the corridor, from what is still being built, the creek bridge, and tie both to the developer's own handover date. Clients who are new to Dubai will also need the geography: Deira and Bur Dubai are the two historic banks of the creek, and Infinity Bridge is the newest crossing between them.

Open now: Al Khaleej Street Tunnel, 1,650 metres, three lanes each way, up to 12,000 vehicles an hour, from the Infinity Bridge ramp to the Al Khaleej Street and Al Wuheida Street junction.
Still being built: the Dubai Islands bridge across Dubai Creek from the Bur Dubai side, about 1,425 metres with four lanes each way; no opening date in the announcement.
Target, not fact yet: the corridor journey falling from 1 hour 44 minutes to 16 minutes by 2030.

For other examples of how a road project changes the brief, read our pieces on the Al Qudra bridge, the Latifa corridor and Dubai's urban centres plan, and our look at Nakheel's Bay Estate on Dubai Islands.

What we did not claim

We used only the figures the RTA published on 8 November 2026, as carried by Emarat Al Youm and Al Bayan in Arabic and by English outlets. We have not estimated price or rent effects from the tunnel, and we have not invented an opening date for the Dubai Islands creek bridge. This is general market orientation, not personalised investment, tax or legal advice. Check the RTA and Dubai Land Department sources before a client decision.