The Roads and Transport Authority’s nighttime smart maintenance programme keeps Dubai’s road network among the best in the world.
Dubai: Data from the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) shows that 95% of Dubai’s road network assets are classified as “excellent”, under an integrated system of periodic evaluation and preventive and proactive maintenance, aimed at maintaining efficiency and sustainability, and reflecting the high level of readiness of the emirate’s road network assets.
During the night hours, the authority carries out work that requires minimising its impact on road users. This includes the maintenance of asphalt roads and the repair of emergency damage, the maintenance of sidewalks, interlocking pavers, bridges, tunnels, and rainwater drainage systems, in addition to the maintenance of lighting poles, traffic signals, directional signs, and metal barriers, as well as cleaning assets, treating surface damage, and implementing traffic improvements, while adhering to safety and quality standards.
As part of its preventive road maintenance programmes for the current year, up to early June 2026, the RTA completed maintenance and rehabilitation work on approximately 17km of asphalt roads, including nine streets and six areas in Dubai, distributed across highways, arterial and internal roads in industrial, commercial and residential areas, in addition to a bicycle path.
As part of the approved preventive maintenance plans for 2026, the RTA is carrying out maintenance and rehabilitation work on sidewalks over a total area of 90,000 square metres in a number of areas of the emirate, compared to about 88,000 square metres that were maintained and rehabilitated during 2025.
In planning and executing nighttime work, the RTA relies on an automated methodology for analysing asset data, based on smart systems, field inspection results, customer reports, traffic data, and periodic preventive maintenance plans. It determines intervention priorities according to the level of risk, severity of damage, volume of traffic, impact of the situation on public safety, and importance of the road or asset, in order to ensure optimal use of resources and increase operational efficiency.
These smart technologies support the system by enabling the RTA to monitor the condition of assets, analyse data, and make operational decisions quickly and accurately. They employ advanced digital systems for asset management and work order tracking, along with modern scanning and inspection devices and advanced equipment, which contributes to raising the quality of implementation, reducing work completion time, and speeding up response to cases that require intervention.
Before nighttime work begins, the authority prepares integrated traffic plans that include prior coordination regarding closures and traffic diversions, providing traffic safety measures in accordance with best practices, in addition to field monitoring of the progress of work. Work teams adhere to precise timetables to complete tasks and reopen roads before the morning peak hours, and final checks are conducted to ensure the readiness and safety of the sites.
Source: Emirates 24|7