A 1980 MEED report described it as "a maze of roads and half-completed buildings" where industrial operations principally comprised workshops, service and maintenance facilities.

[1] As a result, the bridge underwent much restoration work in the 1990s, and generating new interest in developing Musaffah as an industrial centre.

In 1996, the Abu Dhabi Seaports Authority announced a Dh2.4 billion development plan of the area, including the building of a new port in Musaffah.

[9] As a result, the economic development of the area boomed in the 2000s, facilitated by its own port on the northern side.

[8] Abu Dhabi Drilling Chemicals and Products Ltd (ADDCAP), a fully owned subsidiary of ADNOC, began operating in Musaffah in 2007.

[12] Musaffah is located in the central region of the Emirate,[4] situated some 20 km (12 miles) south-east of the centre of Abu Dhabi City, and thus is a satellite town.

[9] On the eastern side is Mohammed Bin Zayed City and to the south is ICAD II and Al Maqatrah.

[19] The banks at the eastern end of the Musaffah Channel reportedly have "Pleistocene reworked dune deposits, unconformably overlain by Holocene carbonates and sabkha evaporates.