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.
“THE LINE will eventually accommodate 9 million people and will be built on a footprint of just 34 square kilometers. This will mean a reduced infrastructure footprint, creating never-before-seen efficiencies in city functions.
The ideal climate all-year-round will ensure that residents can enjoy the surrounding nature. Residents will also have access to all daily essentials within a five-minute walk, in addition to high-speed rail – with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes.”
–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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4 Comments
I would love to live there now while it’s being built as an engineer I would give free construction advice as well as donating a few million dollars to the project.
Great questions, I think some of your questions would make the planners and engineers sweat 😅!
We still think of this as large-scale vaporware until we actually see it built and functioning.
Interesting idea. 9 million people in 34 sq kilometers…. That equates to about 13 sq miles.
The 5 boroughs of New York City consists of 8.8 million people in the space of 302 sq miles!
Seems a bit overcrowded to me….
I’d like to know what the size of housing looks like in this Utopia… 10′ x 10′ cubes perhaps?
Sounds to me almost like a prison cell in this Brave New World Order….
I’m guessing the elite will have much larger accommodations – carbon-free, of course.
How exactly are they going to provide “carbon-free” power to an entire city, including high speed rail?
What about the water needs of 9 million people and all that greenery and trees pictured in the brochure – in a literal desert?
Will there be any meat to eat in The Line, or just vegetables? I didn’t see any pastures for livestock in those fancy pictures…
Wouldn’t it be more efficient use of space to built a city in a square or toroid shape instead of a 100 mile long straight line?
So many unanswered questions…
Other than doing it for the sake of doing it I don’t think there’s any benefit to this. It has to be be very intrusive to the environment.