With the The Line project in Neom, Saudi Arabia wants to become a country with not only the longest but also the largest building ever built in the history of homo sapiens civilization. It is the brainchild of Prince Muhammad bin Salman with a length of 170km and a height of 500 meters.
This morning the Financial Times reported that The Line is experiencing several major problems that will cause the project to be scaled down from the original scale. The first issue is the building design which was found to be unrealizable because it violated the laws of physics and architecture.
Construction of the first phase of The Hidden Marina has begun and it will have a giant ship port and arch complete with a giant chandelier. Due to its mega size, engineers found that this chandelier could not be built because it would sway all the time until it destroyed itself.
The original cost of the building is also now believed to have jumped to more than $4.5 trillion from the original estimate of $1 trillion. Saudi Arabia hoped that foreign investment would be able to cover part of the cost but it failed to achieve this. In addition to the exorbitant cost (more than 10 times Malaysia's GDP in 2024), the need for construction materials will have an impact on the global construction industry. To build the Hidden Marina phase, it takes 60% of the global steel requirements. This will in turn cause global steel costs to increase dramatically.
It is believed that due to all the issues above, the original plan to build the first 20 modules along 16 km has now been reduced to only 3 modules. It will house the port, housing and the world's highest stadium that will be used for the Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup. If what is reported is true, perhaps The Line will have to be renamed The Dash from now on.
The Line is also not the only mega project in Neom that has encountered problems. There is also the manipulation of the cost of the luxury ski resort Trojena Project that will host the 2029 Asian Winter Games and the Sindalah resort that is still not fully completed despite being launched in October last year.
All of these mega projects are MBS's efforts to change the image of Saudi Arabia from an oil-producing country to a major world tourist destination. Among the mega projects that have been approved are the Dragonball theme park, the world's longest roller coaster, the world's deepest underground building, a surfing center in the middle of the desert and the world's longest hanging swimming pool.
