Is anybody here following the construction of Neom aka The Line?

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vavavroom

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Construction of the linear city consisting of two parallel buildings 110 miles long, 500 meters tall and 200 meters wide has actually begun. Well, peripheral infrastructure has been partially built and massive excavations for the foundations are in progress. This dystopian nightmare is intended to house 9 million people once completed. The planned city would run in a straight line from the northwest of Saudi Arabia all the way to the Red Sea. I will be watching construction for a very long time unless they scale down or abandon this folly.

There are lots of YT videos on the actual construction as well as hilariously manipulative marketing videos.


The Line, Saudi Arabia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
I am no architect but I don't see a reason for building linear cities unless you have to work around something that's linear in the surrounding: river, mountain range, coastline, existing roads or railway, etc. I understand that fuel is cheap in Saudi and they have tons of money to build whatever they want, but efficiency wise this is not something that'll help them go from point A to point B.

What are they trying to achieve? The whole $500B plan looks like a money laundering scheme to me.
 
They have a reason, whether or not it's reasonable is another issue. They want to make Saudi Arabia the number one attraction on the planet before their main resource dries up. Good luck with all that. Dubai has tried and has half succeded, half failed.

500 billion? Right. If realized it will cost trillions.

Not sure about even sufficient funds. Jeddah Tower was sitting for five years after having been constructed only partially. Construction finally resumed less than two months ago.

Trojena, the ski resort in the mountains of Neom is also being built. Great idea. Olympic Winter Games in Saudi Arabia in 2029. How much does this project cost?

There's also the North Pole mega project in Riyadg.

www.factmagazines.com

Everything we know about The North Pole megaproject in Riyadh - FACT Magazine

Located in the north of Riyadh, The North Pole aims to include the world’s tallest building. Rise Tower.
www.factmagazines.com www.factmagazines.com
 
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I'll be impressed if anybody actually builds a 5-mile-long and 500 m tall building/city. Does anybody remember Freedom Ship?
 
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PandaBear said:
I am no architect but I don't see a reason for building linear cities unless you have to work around something that's linear in the surrounding: river, mountain range, coastline, existing roads or railway, etc. I understand that fuel is cheap in Saudi and they have tons of money to build whatever they want, but efficiency wise this is not something that'll help them go from point A to point B.

What are they trying to achieve? The whole $500B plan looks like a money laundering scheme to me.
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Shared transportation comes to mind. This type of construction would lend itself to a rail-based system. I've been fortunate in that I've never had to rely on North American public transportation day to day, but living and/or working any significant distance from an arterial route would be a nightmare.
 
It's gonna be interesting to watch the first big fire spread.

And if this ever gets built, I doubt it's ever gonna be feasible to remodel/refurb/demolish the place in the decades to come.
 
fsdork said:
Shared transportation comes to mind. This type of construction would lend itself to a rail-based system. I've been fortunate in that I've never had to rely on North American public transportation day to day, but living and/or working any significant distance from an arterial route would be a nightmare.
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Even with rail transit they could have make a ring based system for efficiency instead.
 
Pew said:
It's gonna be interesting to watch the first big fire spread.

And if this ever gets built, I doubt it's ever gonna be feasible to remodel/refurb/demolish the place in the decades to come.
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It is in the middle of a desert, what are you going to burn outside of your building? Concrete buildings get demolished and redeveloped all the time so it is not really a problem.
 
PandaBear said:
It is in the middle of a desert, what are you going to burn outside of your building? Concrete buildings get demolished and redeveloped all the time so it is not really a problem.
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Things inside can burn. Concrete buildings can also get left not demolished, especially when the costs are too high and there's no want for the land the building sits on.
 
This project does seem like a fool's venture that will gobble up resources, especially capital, that could be put to better uses.
From where will the water for the supposed residents come? Who actually wants to live in Saudi Arabia anyway?
A dystopian nightmare, like an old Soviet era project on steroids.
 
fdcg27 said:
This project does seem like a fool's venture that will gobble up resources, especially capital, that could be put to better uses.
From where will the water for the supposed residents come? Who actually wants to live in Saudi Arabia anyway?
A dystopian nightmare, like an old Soviet era project on steroids.
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"Who wants to live in Saudi Arabia anyways" is a stupid question. People live where they grew up and not everyone can just immigrate to another country as they please. There are always people doing well in some countries as they are making good money for their jobs or businesses. There are people moving between places for their own reasons (like people moving out of US to Europe, and people in Europe wonder why some would want to immigrate to the US for the lack of affordable medical care and high cost of college, etc).

Gobbling up resources is my suspicion too, seems like a project just for the sake of stimulus and siphoning country's money into the princes and gov officials.

Regarding to water, they can probably do enough treatment to get the grey water back into flushing toilet, fresh water from desalination (if Cabos can afford to do so then Saudi can), and probably enough solar panels to power ACs, etc. If they are spending 500B to build a line then desalination is probably the cheaper part of the project.
 
Stupid question huh?
Saudi Arabia has a population of 32 million, 40% of which consists of foreign non-citizens who may leave at any time. Suggest you check out some expat forums to see how unenthused most of these people are to be making a living in the Kingdom. Even those expat airline pilots who are bribed with very high rates of compensation seem lukewarm about living there.
The population of citizens is around 19 million. Nearly half of these people would need to live in this monstrous project at its planned build out capacity.
I also doubt that desalination is a viable solution for a city the size of this one for more than a brief period.
White elephant anyone?
Waste of the Kingdom's resources?
 
fdcg27 said:
Stupid question huh?
Saudi Arabia has a population of 32 million, 40% of which consists of foreign non-citizens who may leave at any time. Suggest you check out some expat forums to see how unenthused most of these people are to be making a living in the Kingdom. Even those expat airline pilots who are bribed with very high rates of compensation seem lukewarm about living there.
The population of citizens is around 19 million. Nearly half of these people would need to live in this monstrous project at its planned build out capacity.
I also doubt that desalination is a viable solution for a city the size of this one for more than a brief period.
White elephant anyone?
Waste of the Kingdom's resources?
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Great. That clearly shows you don't understand. If there's a place nobody wants to live in, there won't be "40% of which consists of foreign non citizens". Think Russia when people are emigrating out instead of people coming in and live there as non citizen. You will always find people loving and hating a place. The only way to tell objectively is to look at the net inflow and outflow of its population.

Maybe they don't want to retire there, but that doesn't means NOBODY WANTS TO LIVE THERE (EVEN IF IT IS ONLY FOR MONEY).
 
PandaBear said:
Great. That clearly shows you don't understand. If there's a place nobody wants to live in, there won't be "40% of which consists of foreign non citizens". Think Russia when people are emigrating out instead of people coming in and live there as non citizen. You will always find people loving and hating a place. The only way to tell objectively is to look at the net inflow and outflow of its population.

Maybe they don't want to retire there, but that doesn't means NOBODY WANTS TO LIVE THERE (EVEN IF IT IS ONLY FOR MONEY).
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I may not be the one who doesn't understand.
As I suggested in my reply to your "stupid question" post, you should check out some expat forums. People either stay for the money or because they've had their passports seized and can't leave or by leaving they'll sacrifice a lot of what's owed them.
One of the dirty little secrets of the Kingdom is that the citizens rely upon expats to do the bulk of the actual work involved in keeping the Kingdom functioning. For that matter, do you actually think that all of the developing world expat workers who do the dirty jobs that need done will be living in this linear city?
What do you suppose would happen if all the expat pilots left Saudi Arabia? The outcome would not be a functioning air tranpost system.
 
Here are three pictures that show actual excavation along the ca 110 mile stretch of the planned structure. Both sections are over 12 km long. Supposedly 4,500 piles for the foundations have been driven into the ground so far. I presume that's near the westerns end at the planned marina.

More pictures here.





Detail showing heavy machinery. Whatever they are doing, they are doing a lot of digging, a grading.

 
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fdcg27 said:
I may not be the one who doesn't understand.
As I suggested in my reply to your "stupid question" post, you should check out some expat forums. People either stay for the money or because they've had their passports seized and can't leave or by leaving they'll sacrifice a lot of what's owed them.
One of the dirty little secrets of the Kingdom is that the citizens rely upon expats to do the bulk of the actual work involved in keeping the Kingdom functioning. For that matter, do you actually think that all of the developing world expat workers who do the dirty jobs that need done will be living in this linear city?
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Let me put it this way: if someone is going there to work because they got scammed, others would stop going and those who are still there would leave instead of waiting for justice.

I think Saudi is either #1 or #2 in the preference of Filipino workers.

2020 Overseas Filipino Workers (Final Results) | Philippine Statistics Authority | Republic of the Philippines

The number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) or Filipino workers who worked abroad during the period of April to September 2020 was estimated at 1.77 million.
psa.gov.ph psa.gov.ph

It may not work for YOU because you don't like it, but they pay enough and many wants to go work there, make the money, then go back home.

What do you suppose would happen if all the expat pilots left Saudi Arabia? The outcome would not be a functioning air tranpost system.
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They would increase the pay enough so SOMEONE would want to work there. There are always people willing to take a chance if the pay is high enough. Maybe not the best pilot for the best pay but there will always be someone wanting to work for the right price.

Still the number speaks for itself. They pay enough so 40% of their population are foreign workers. There are always people hating it and loving it but North Korea and Russia didn't get 40% of population in foreign workers, they get net population decline or people emigrating outward. Having nearly 100% of the people in Russia being Russian citizen doesn't prevent exodus due to financial reason. Saudi is not "free" but finance is not their worry if they are keeping 40% of the population in foreign workers there.
 
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