Neom completes construction work on two jobs on The Line rail link

In a statement to shareholders, China-based XCMG Machinery announced that contractors had completed construction work on both the parking lot and the tunnel on The Spine infrastructure corridor ahead of schedule in July 2024 using its equipment.

Construction work on The Spine. Photo: XCMG

XCMG said that ten of its high-capacity rotary drilling rigs were used on the projects completing three piles per day per drilling rig, which managed deep foundation work even in challenging sandy geologies.

XCMG said its rotary drilling rigs – four units of XR500E and two units each of XR600E, XR320D and XR400D – demonstrated exceptional capability by handling pile foundations ranging from 60-90m deep and 2-2.5m.

The XR600E is the largest tonnage drilling rig that has been deployed in the construction of NEOM city, also the largest model to export from China. Despite entering the site a month later than other machinery, these rigs completed their tasks two weeks early.

First announced in 2017, The Spine is an infrastructure corridor that runs parallel to the Line designed to move people and goods along the linear smart city which is designed to have no cars, streets or carbon emissions. According to original plans, the city has been designed to be 170km long and accommodate a population of nine million people. Some reports suggest that this has since been scaled down.

XCMG said the mega project was currently employing over 140,000 construction workers on-site.