Saudi Arabia's The Line: Inside the 170-kilometre Desert City Project and its Foundation Challenges

Overview

The B1M examines The Line, Saudi Arabia's audacious linear city concept as part of Neom and Vision 2030. The video explains how foundations are engineered, including piled rafts, 8-metre raft bases, and a 500-well dewatering system to manage saline groundwater. It highlights phase one, a 2.4-kilometre stretch, anchored by major assets such as a man-made marina, the Neon Stadium, and a vast chandelier. The analysis also covers budget pressures, supply constraints, and questions about livability and long-term viability in a desert metropolis built to a new urban paradigm.

Introduction to The Line

The B1M presents a detailed look at The Line, Saudi Arabia's 170-kilometre desert city project within Neom, tied to Vision 2030. The video explains the scale, the design concept, and how the city would be organized along five decks with cores acting as streets and anchors driving development. It also situates the project within a broader ambition to diversify the economy away from oil and to redefine urban living.

Foundations and Ground Conditions

A key focus is the foundation strategy required to span varied terrain. The foundation concept relies on piling down to bedrock with a concrete raft on top. The B1M demonstrates piles, 70-metre deep installations, and a robust automated rebar cage production line. The nearshore groundwater poses corrosion risks, which require a large dewatering network consisting of 500 wells and high-volume pumping to maintain usable ground conditions. The foundational work for phase one is already extensive, with millions of cubic metres of concrete and thousands of piles setting the stage for vertical construction.

Concrete and Water Supply

Concrete at this scale hinges on reliable water supply. The Oxygen desalination plant is proposed to supply billions of litres of water to reservoirs along The Line, feeding a network of concrete factories capable of producing tens of thousands of cubic metres daily. The video notes that as of late 2025, the Oxygen project is not yet delivering at scale, and current local production relies on tanker-delivered water, highlighting a critical bottleneck for schedule and budget.

Anchor Assets and Phase One

Phase one is described as 2.4 kilometres of the total 170 kilometres, but designed as anchor assets to attract investment and development. These include a world-class marina, a 46,000-seat Neon Stadium, and an enormous chandelier linking the city’s entry points. The anchor strategy aims to bootstrap subsequent expansion through real estate and service demand, even as critics question whether the long desert corridor can support such a dense, multi-use urban fabric.

Urban Form and Transportation

The Line eschews traditional sprawl in favor of a stacked, modular city with a high-speed railway at the base and a transit network distributed across five decks. The video argues that the geometry of the line is a practical challenge, with a potential advantage over traditional grids but questions about travel efficiency, access, and the feasibility of moving large populations quickly between distant points.

Costs, Politics, and Risk

The presentation emphasizes that the project is as much about symbolic leadership and national image as it is about engineering. The Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 ambitions create intense pressure to deliver. Budget overruns, leadership decisions, and external capital requirements are discussed as major risk factors. The piece also addresses allegations around human costs and press access, noting the guarded environment around the site and the potential impact on credibility and timelines.

Outlook and Conclusions

As deadlines approach, the video frames 2026 as a make-or-break moment. Whether phase one and the broader line will progress, be scaled, or be abandoned remains uncertain. The comparison to Brasilia underscores the historical tension between bold symbolic projects and practical livability and sustainability in desert conditions.