How Dubai keeps its roads among the world’s best

Dubai: Dubai’s reputation for having one of the world’s most advanced road networks is being reinforced by a sophisticated system that constantly monitors, assesses and maintains its infrastructure.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has recorded a 95 per cent “excellent” rating for its road network assets under its Road Network Asset Condition Index (ACI), highlighting the high standard of roads and infrastructure across the emirate.

The achievement places Dubai among leading cities globally in road asset management and reflects RTA’s growing use of smart technologies to ensure roads, signs, barriers, lighting, traffic signals and other infrastructure remain safe, efficient and in good condition.

The ACI measures the structural and operational condition of road assets on a scale of 0 to 100. By tracking deterioration and the severity of damage, the index allows RTA to identify maintenance priorities early, plan interventions and manage infrastructure throughout its lifecycle.

Key areas

RTA’s assessment stands out in five key areas: comprehensive coverage of road assets; a quantitative methodology for calculating the ACI; the use of LiDAR, artificial intelligence and automated data extraction; annual assessment of the entire road network; and integration with Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

LiDAR technology is at the heart of the system, enabling high-precision digital surveys of more than 38 road asset classes, including pavements, traffic signs, safety barriers, lighting poles, traffic signals and fencing.

Unlike traditional inspections, surveys can be carried out while vehicles are moving, without closing roads to traffic. RTA says the technology can achieve accuracy of up to 95 per cent compared with conventional visual assessments.

This means potentially damaged or deteriorating infrastructure can be identified faster, allowing maintenance teams to act before relatively minor problems become costly or disruptive repairs.

The technology is particularly useful on highways and freeways, where conventional inspection methods can be difficult and may require traffic restrictions.

Benchmarking

RTA developed its ACI methodology after benchmarking its practices against major transport authorities and organisations worldwide, including transport departments in several US states, Austroads in Australia, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and transport authorities in China, France and Sweden.

The benchmarking examined how leading organisations assess road assets, calculate condition indices, automate inspections, use advanced technologies, determine inspection frequency and integrate data with GIS systems.

The result is a system designed not simply to identify defects, but to provide RTA with a continuous picture of the health of Dubai’s road network.

Preventive maintenance

The 95 per cent excellent rating also underlines the importance of preventive and proactive maintenance in keeping the infrastructure ready for the millions of daily journeys made across the emirate.

For Dubai, where road connectivity is a key part of the city’s economy and quality of life, maintaining that network is as important as expanding it.

RTA said the achievement supports Dubai’s ambition to provide world-class transport and infrastructure services while improving efficiency, sustainability and the overall quality of life.