According to traffic studies conducted over the last decade, traffic movement in Riyadh has risen at a rate proportional to population growth, with some five million car trips made every day in the city, compared with less than one million trips in 1980. The five-year development plan focuses on the rehabilitation of the interior network of expressways in Riyadh, which include an unfinished ring road. At present, the city is served by 2,900 kilometres of lanes on main arterial roads, 1,600 kilometres of lanes on secondary arterial roads and some 12,700 kilometres of interchanges and feeder roads.

The road expansion project is one of the first to emerge from a strategic urban development programme drawn up by the Ar-Riyadh authority last year. The government has set aside some $2,700 million for infrastructure investment this year.