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Neom is a challenge and an opportunity

28 April 2023

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
> PILING: Chinese firm wins Neom marina piling work
> 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

Read the May 2023 issue of MEED Business Review

Commentary
Colin Foreman
Editor

When arriving at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the first thing that visitors to Neom realise is the vast area that the project covers. 

Tabuk, which is at the inland extent of Neom, is a two-hour drive from the start of The Line on the Red Sea coast. 

Once at The Line, the enormity of the construction work required to make Neom a reality can start to be appreciated. 

Although work on site is still in the early stages, it is already the world’s largest piling project, with more than 4,500 piles reaching down to a depth of 57 metres driven so far, which at times has meant 60 piles installed a day. 

To give those numbers some meaning, the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, has 194 piles driven to a depth of 43 metres. 

The scale of The Line and the other developments at Neom have made it a projects market in its own right.

Combined, they awarded $13.6bn of contracts in 2022, more than established markets such as Riyadh, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The total for 2023 is expected to be even higher.

Delivering such a large volume of work is a major challenge for the construction industry, and the issues involved, particularly those of securing resources, have been well documented.

The scale of The Line and the other developments at Neom have made it a projects market in its own right

What has been discussed less is the unique opportunity that this scale creates. 

As the world’s largest construction project, it offers the chance to demonstrate that integrating design and construction on mass to become a more industrialised process can lead to greater efficiency in terms of time, cost and environmental performance. 

As Neom becomes too large to ignore, companies working in the region will have to decide whether the rewards of those opportunities outweigh the risks that the challenges may pose.

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Colin Foreman

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