This package on Neom also includes:

> SITE REPORT: World’s largest piling project shifts to The Line’s marina
> INTERVIEW: Neom to fix construction
> ANALYSIS: Neom becomes real-world building project
> MOVIE SET: Neom advances plans to be leading movie destination
> TUNNELS: Neom tenders Delta Junction tunnel contracts
> OXAGON: Work to start for $1.5bn Oxagon wind turbine plant

Neom has awarded Beijing-based PowerChina a work order for pilling works on its 170-kilometre-long The Line project, which extends inland from the Red Sea coast towards Tabuk in northern Saudi Arabia.

The order covers piling work on modules 45-48. The construction period is 100 calendar days.

MEED reported in March that Neom was shifting the focus of the world’s largest piling project to The Line modules at the marina as excavation work for the waterway reached an advanced stage.

Modules 45-48 are at the marina, which is expected to host the world’s largest cruise ships.

The structures that make up The Line comprise 135 modules that are 800 metres in length and 500 metres tall at sea level.

The marina is located on the other side of The Line facing the sea, meaning ships headed for the marina must pass through The Line buildings.

The marina is the largest excavation project in the world, with about 1 million cubic metres of earth being moved every week.

This presents a major engineering challenge since it requires creating a 165-metre-wide waterway passing through the 500-metre-tall buildings.

“The maximum hole depth in the test pile construction in the quantity sheet is 83 metres, until the bottom of the future wharf,” stated PowerChina.

“The geology is a saturated flow-plastic sand layer along the coast, and the construction is extremely difficult. The future test data will have strategic guiding significance for the construction of the entire linear city.”

Previously, the piling work for The Line had concentrated on module 43, where more than 4,500 piles have been installed. Work has reached a peak of more than 60 piles a day.

In addition to PowerChina, eight other contractors are working on the piling for The Line as part of a framework agreement. Six of these are onsite. They are the local Al-Osais, Germany’s Bauer, the UK’s Keller, UAE-based NSCC and Italy’s Trevi.

The other three firms that are part of the framework agreement are France’s Bachy Soletanche, the local Huta and Saudi Baytur.

Three firms are working with Neom as delivery partners for The Line. They are UK-based Atkins and two US firms, Jacobs and Parsons. 

The Line is designed to ultimately house 9 million residents who will have access to the development’s facilities within a five-minute walk. A high-speed rail system will have an end-to-end journey time of 20 minutes.

MEED’s April 2023 special report on Saudi Arabia includes:

> GIGAPROJECTS: Saudi Arabia under project pressure
> ECONOMY: Riyadh steps up the Vision 2030 tempo
> CONSTRUCTION: Saudi construction project ramp-up accelerates
> UPSTREAM: Aramco slated to escalate upstream spending
> DOWNSTREAM: Petchems ambitions define Saudi downstream
> POWER: Saudi Arabia reinvigorates power sector
> WATER: Saudi water begins next growth phase
> BANKING: Saudi banks bid to keep ahead of the pack