JVC traffic fix: RTA and Dubai Holding’s AED 6bn road programme and four new access points

Ask residents of Jumeirah Village Circle what they dislike about the district and the answer is rarely price or service charges. It is getting in and out. In the morning the whole community drains through a handful of narrow exits, and reaching Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road or Al Khail Road can take longer than the journey itself. The city has acknowledged it. On 2 March 2025 the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and Dubai Holding signed an AED 6bn (about $1.6bn) road programme. By September 2026 work is under way and parts are already open.

What JVC gets

The agreement adds four new access points to JVC with grade-separated interchanges. The RTA says entry and exit capacity will double and travel times on the access roads and internal streets will fall by 70%.

The second piece is the Hessa Street upgrade. Phase one opened in April 2026, and the phase two contract was awarded in February. It includes:

• a 780 m bridge with three lanes each way, linking Al Khamila Street to JVC;
• 1,050 m of elevated ramps from Al Khamila Street to Al Khail Road towards Abu Dhabi;
• a two-lane, second-level ramp from JVC towards Al Barsha South;
• a 480 m two-lane tunnel from JVC to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road.

Once complete, Hessa Street capacity rises from 4,000 to 8,000 vehicles an hour and the 3 km run between Al Khail Road and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road drops from 24 minutes to five. The RTA puts the number of residents who benefit at about 650,000 across ten communities, including JVC, Al Barsha South, Arjan, JLT, Barsha Heights and The Greens. No completion date for phase two has been published.

The other districts in the programme

District	Works	Promised effect
Dubai Production City	New bridges from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road	50% faster entry and exit
Business Bay	Junction upgrades at Sheikh Zayed Road, pedestrian bridge at First Al Khail	30% faster in the towers area
Palm Jumeirah	Acceleration and deceleration lanes at six points, two pedestrian bridges	40% faster
International City, phase 3	Extra lane at the Manama Street entrance, wider internal roads	15 minutes down to 5

Note who is paying. Dubai Holding is the master developer behind most of these communities, so it is funding roads to its own land, because homes without access sell and let worse.

What it means for owners and buyers

For JVC this addresses the district’s biggest weakness. We have covered how 2,417 new apartments arrived in JVC in a single year; more residents without more roads would only have made congestion worse. The interchanges partly remove that risk.

The flip side is disruption: during construction some access points run on diversions, which landlords should be upfront about with tenants. The price effect comes when the roads open, not when contracts are signed. Longer term, JVC also sits on the planned rail link between DXB and Al Maktoum airport.

When choosing a JVC apartment, look not only at the building but at which of the new access points it sits closest to. Prices, rents and supply for the district are in our JVC area guide.