Saudi planners continue to push forward with a vast construction program in Neom, a megacity project promoted by the Saudi regime and touted as a monumental urban experiment. At a pace described as rapid, the work has been advancing since mid-October, with early weeks showing steady momentum and new images released by the project team to illustrate progress on site.
Presently, the site resembles a hive of activity. Hundreds of workers operate amid dozens of cranes and a fleet of heavy machinery. The area that will host The Line, alongside a massive ski facility and a suite of other amenities, sits in a dusty desert landscape along the Red Sea coast. The images depict land leveling and foundational work for a structure that is planned to stretch at least 170 kilometers from inland desert to the shoreline.
A video release provides a glimpse of the current field conditions, including the scale and precision of ongoing earthworks that will underpin the future skyline.
“ecological” project
Organizers emphasize that Neom and The Line will operate under an entirely ecological framework. The giant complex under construction is designed to be powered by renewable energy, with transportation within the city planned to be zero-emission. The design envisions a high-speed rail link capable of traversing the entire 170-kilometer span in about twenty minutes, while services, shops, and essential facilities are projected to be reachable on foot within roughly a five-minute walk from any point along the route.
The project’s leadership presents the development as a test bed for sustainable urban living and a showcase of advanced urban design intended to redefine livability amid growing environmental concerns.
These efforts are framed as part of a broader national strategy that seeks to demonstrate how a city can function with minimal carbon impact while offering a high quality of life to residents and visitors alike. The development is portrayed as a living laboratory for new materials, energy systems, and transportation concepts that could influence future mega-projects around the world.
As the project unfolds, extensive imagery continues to reveal what lies inside The Line and how the surrounding components will integrate with the broader Neom vision. The site is monitored for breaks in construction progress, and new iterations of the plan offer deeper looks at the indoor environments, infrastructure networks, and the architectural language envisioned for the city.
Where will the water come from?
Water supply is identified as a major challenge not only for The Line but for Neom as a whole, including the ski resort. Ensuring a sufficient and sustainable water source for residents and the city’s infrastructure remains a central concern for planners and researchers working on the project.
Proposed solutions include the construction of large-scale water treatment facilities that would route desalinated water from the Red Sea to urban areas. While the plan foresees powering these facilities with renewable energy, experts have raised questions about the feasibility and scalability of desalination at such a vast scale, given the energy demands involved. The emissions associated with producing electricity for desalination are also a point of debate among energy and environmental analysts.
In addition to energy and water challenges, the project raises questions about environmental impact and human rights. Critics note that the process of development has involved significant relocations and governance concerns that merit careful scrutiny by observers and international bodies. The discussion around the balance between ambitious urban transformation and residents’ rights remains a focal point as Neom progresses.
As the project moves forward, ongoing coverage seeks to document both the innovations and the potential trade-offs involved in this ambitious urban experiment.
For those following the development, the project’s progress is tracked over time through regular updates that showcase new ideas, technologies, and imagined interiors of what will eventually be inside The Line.
Seemingly constant updates and imagery offer a window into the evolving map of Neom, spanning the scale of a vast desert-to-sea corridor and the integrated communities that will populate it.
— End of overview of the Neom and The Line project as it stands today.