Construction has made important headway on Neom, the $500 billion futuristic megacity coming in Saudi Arabia, with all portions of the project being built simultaneously, a senior official has been quoted as saying. 

 

Brett Smythe, chief projects officer of NEOM, said in an interview with Arab News that work has made important headway on Neom’s road and utility backbone, its first permanent villages, marine works and social infrastructure.

 

All regions of Neom will be built simultaneously, in keeping with the project’s mission to accelerate and deliver progress, according to him.

 

“Work has also commenced on The Line, a series of communities built along a 170-km strip of land from the Red Sea deep into the interior of Saudi Arabia, integrated with The Spine, the transport and logistics backbone that will service The Line. Early grading work has already commenced, and major contracts are progressing for The Spine infrastructure to Bechtel (executive project manager), Aecom (lead designer) and China Railway Construction Corp. (adits and portals),” Smythe noted.

 

Work has started on Oxagon, a radical new model for future manufacturing centres, as well as the civil engineering and infrastructure for its water innovation hub.

 

He also pointed to the world’s largest volumetric mass modular manufacturing facility in Neom is also being established, and additional work is commencing on major energy, water and transport assets, hospitality venues, airport upgrades, island tourism destinations and a marina.

 

Smythe promised that 2023 will see a speed up of large-scale permanent construction in all areas. Across its 26,500 sq km, covering both land and maritime regions, the above scale of development still only accounts for 5 percent of Neom in total — maintaining the project’s conservation goals and promise to shape a future in harmony with nature.

 

He said the scale of the work on this project has never been witnessed before. “We’re building something on a scale never seen before, using new technologies to bring to life one of the world’s most exciting and disruptive projects. As Neom progresses through the construction of the project, it will create the most advanced economic construction ecosystem in the world, which will go on to contribute to the long-term gross domestic product of Neom, Saudi Arabia and beyond,” Smythe said in the interview.