Early last month Giles Pendleton, Chief Operations Officer on The Line, indicated that massive amounts of excavation and piling are under way on Modules 44 to 48 of The Line, a linear city that stretches across 170 km, from the mountains at Trojena across desert valleys to the Red Sea at the Gulf of Aqaba.

The LinkedIn Post was part of his Neom is Real series, which provides a periodic update on the project.

In addition, to assure its global audience, Neom last month announced that it is establishing and operating a SR700-million ($186 million) readymix concrete facility, which will mainly service the construction of The Line. The multi-plant concrete production facility is being set up in partnership with Asas Al-Mohileb, a leading Saudi Arabian construction and engineering company.

The establishment of the plant comes as construction on The Line gathers pace. Work on the foundation piles is under way, with nearly 1,000 out of over 30,000 piles placed so far, according to Neom.

Peak operations are anticipated to start in 2025, and the facility is expected to generate over 500 local jobs.

The cognitive city will comprise a 500-m mirror-clad architectural tower, that is 200 m wide. Expected to be completed in 2045, The Line will eventually accommodate nine million people and will be built on a footprint of just 34 sq km. It will be the epicentre for all activities – the primary home for residents, as a vertical city comprising all amenities, from opera houses and libraries to stadiums and universities.

Work under way at Module 47 of The Line.

“We are building a university in the first module because we want to anchor the launch around innovation and education. Every single thing you can think of in any city in the world will be on The Line at some point, but it may not be in the very first module; just when it makes sense from a population perspective,” said Pendleton, in an interview on Neom’s website.

Among such amenities, plans were unveiled in July for Neom’s awe-inspiring stadium. Expected to be one of the most distinctive and iconic stadiums in the world, the 46,000+-seat facility will be situated more than 350 m above ground within The Line. It is designed to provide an unprecedented and exceptional experience for fans attending the matches. Additionally, the stadium will be run entirely on renewable energy, generated primarily from wind and solar sources, marking a historic shift in stadium design, globally.

Transport

While the project boasts no roads, no cars and no emissions, residents will have access to all daily essentials within a five-minute walk, in addition to a high-speed rail – with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes – connecting the mountains of Trojena to the Red Sea.

The Line will comprise 135 modules, each of which will be 800 m long and 500 m tall at sea level. According to Neom’s posts, work is currently in progress on at least five of these modules – 44 to 48. Each of the modules will comprise communities of 80,000 people.

Elaborating on the transport system, Pendleton said: “The Spine, which is our high-speed rail network, will link the international airport to the Gulf of Aqaba on the coast in four stops. A metro system will allow local travel from module-to-module. Plus, there will be horizontal transport corridors at four different heights that might well be pods, light rail or even horizontal elevators – we are still deciding on that particular solution.”

“The city will also run on a net-zero basis, which means our energy is derived from renewable resources – wind, solar, green hydrogen and other technologies that will evolve. We’re starting with legacy-free infrastructure. We don’t have to retrofit and so we can meter energy and water at every point of the system. And we plan to use remineralised desalinated water,” he added.

Webuild is constructing 57 km of the high-speed railway line known as the Connector that will link The Line and Oxagon, Neom’s centre for advanced and clean industries. Its joint venture partner is Shibh Al Jazira Contracting Company (Sajco).

Another contractor, FCC Construcción of Spain is constructing a crucial 8.7-km tunnel within ‘The Spine’. The tunnel project is being handled by a consortium spearheaded by FCC Construcción with China State Construction Engineering Corporation and Shibh Al Jazira Contracting Company as partners.

Neom had in 2022 awarded contracts to two joint venture groups for the project which is separated by lower and upper geographies, with the first one given to FCC consortium and the second to Samsung C&T Corporation’s consortium with Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Saudi Archirodon Company as partners.

The tunnels work will extend over 28 km in length and provide separate tunnels for high-speed and freight rail services.

 According to FCC, the rock excavated as part of the tunnel construction project will be processed for later reuse within the concrete lining of the tunnels as well as in other projects, guaranteeing a minimum impact on the landscape.