Saudi authorities share new images from the construction site revealing the progress of The Line city being built in the desert.
Millions of m3 of earth are transported weekly at The Line construction site. (Photo: NEOM).
As the The Line project continues to develop in the Saudi Arabian desert, new construction details have been released, highlighting the challenges of transforming the rugged terrain into a futuristic mega-city. This includes using one-fifth of the total steel currently available in the world, according to New Atlas. The Line is a key part of Saudi Arabia’s NEOM project, aimed at shifting the country’s oil-dependent economy towards a focus on tourism, recognizing that reducing fossil fuel use is an inevitable trend in the coming years.
Planned to stretch 170 km long, The Line will initially only span 2.4 km upon completion in 2030. However, this is still an impressive achievement with a height of 500 m and a width of 200 m. The city will feature a mirrored exterior and accommodate approximately 300,000 residents, equipped with AI technology and surveillance cameras to monitor everything from waste collection to water usage.
To bring this ambitious project to life, the Saudi government has built a new $190 million concrete plant capable of producing 20,000 m3 of concrete per day. Most of this concrete will be used for The Line, while the remaining will support other projects within the NEOM complex. Additionally, over 100,000 workers have been mobilized to continuously transport vast amounts of earth around the clock, seven days a week, to construct the massive foundation for the project.
Construction of The Line’s foundation pillars. (Photo: NEOM).
The construction of foundation pillars is currently underway, with nearly 1,000 out of a total of over 30,000 pillars completed to date. Furthermore, according to Arabian Gulf Business Insight, NEOM’s investment director Manar Al Moneef has stated that the project is using one-fifth of the total steel produced worldwide. Saudi authorities hope that the project will remain the largest customer in the construction materials sector for many decades to come.
NEOM organizers plan to be more transparent about the construction process to reassure investors and attract additional capital. In addition to The Line, other notable projects within the NEOM complex currently under construction in Saudi Arabia include Treyam, Epicon, and Xaynor.
