The Municipality is studying new mixtures of asphalt which reduce traffic noise and extend the life of city roads. Nasser Ahmed Saeed, Director of the Roads Department, said the new mixes will address problems such as "bleeding" roads and tyre noise.

"Asphalt is made up of bitumen and aggregates," he said. "Sometimes due to very hot weather or excessive loads of heavy trucks, the bitumen is released from the mixture. "This is what is called 'bleeding' and is an extremely rare phenomenon here because of the high quality of our roads, which are considered to be better than many European and American roads.

"But Dubai Municipality is continually looking to raise standards of excellence. "We attended an international transport conference in France around six months ago and we visited factories and learnt of a chemical added to asphalt that eliminates 'bleeding'. We have been studying this and will be implementing it in the near future."

The department is also studying an asphalt additive for use in residential areas. "When heavy vehicles ply residential roads there is a lot of noise," he said. "The new mixture can absorb the sound, so noise in residential areas will be reduced."