When it was first announced in the summer of 2022, it was easy to dismiss the megaproject THE LINE as just another high profile marketing stunt.
Indeed, the scale, design, and sheer audacity of a 110-mile long, 1600 foot-high city clad in reflective glass seems too ambitious for even the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
However, 16 months on, THE LINE shows real progress, with excavation works having created many miles of the city’s planned linear footprint.
For something this new and audacious, it’s pretty impressive, or scary, depending on how you view the megacity.
Considered the world’s largest earthworks operation, the site is moving millions of cubic meters weekly.
A February 2024 video update shows THE LINE’s progress. It shows images and videos of a huge worksite, and the developers of the project claim to be committed to its success.
The ‘first phase’ of the project claims to be completed by 2030, but we’re unsure what that phase entails.
One of the main selling points of THE LINE is zero-car, zero-emission design, though it’s clear from video updates that traditional construction equipment is being used in the excavation and earthworks effort.
Inside, THE LINE promises a ‘legacy-free’ design. That means it can start from scratch with what an urban landscape could look like. Building vertically, building linear, building futuristically.
–NEOM
Many of the renderings are staggering to take in. This one shows a cruise ship passing underneath an enormous suspended glass structure, framed by THE LINE’s multi-tiered walls.
It’s clear that a project this huge and ambitious will take years, probably decades to pull off, if it ever succeeds. The estimated costs are in the hundreds of billions of dollars, with one estimate as high as one trillion dollars.
Countless concerns over the environmental impact, natural impact, and humanitarian impact have been raised over the planning of THE LINE. We imagine these concerns will only grow as the project takes on steam.
Regardless, we’ll keep updating the status of this mega-project, and share the ways in which its design and construction take shape.
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