Saudi Prince To Build 120 km Wide Skyscraper And Taller Than ESB

[niwell]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

yeah so as i was saying, before trash day lol, it seems some dont think anything with come of this audacious proposal, but i would bet this actually gets going and then immediately becomes a mundane new city like lagos ecko atlantic or the usual dubai goofiness.

A small part of NEOM already exists and it’s pretty standard suburban / new city dreck. I’m sure more will be built but certainly not this, nor the slightly less ambitious plans for “The Line”. It’s not exactly money laundering, but it is a way to funnel money towards big international consulting and engineering firms.

[IMBY]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I guess this explains the high gasoline prices this summer.

The Saudi's don't want the U.S. to be energy independent. Lower the price of a barrel of oil to $20, and there goes out fracking industry! Good job, Saudi's!

I just read a book on MBS and his pie-in-the-sky Neom project. I'm betting on it being a colossal failure!

[IMBY]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

While $1 trillion may be a staggeringly large sum for a single project, somehow I feel it this would need a lot more than that? I mean, the Central Park Tower which is similar in height was $3 billion despite being only about 40m at its max width. So if we were to extrapolate that to building enough of them side by side to extend 120km, that would cost around $9 trillion. Yes NYC construction costs are high, but I'm pretty sure building in the middle of the remote and inhospitable desert isn't going to be cheap either?

Considering Saudi Arabia's whole annual nominal GDP is only around $1 trillion I can't see them pulling this off unless it's an absolute necessity. Maybe if they used enough slave labour?

Slave labor? As the low fertility rate, 1-2 child family sweeps the world, countries are going to be fighting over immigrants. And they're not going to come cheap anymore.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by niwell

A small part of NEOM already exists and it’s pretty standard suburban / new city dreck. I’m sure more will be built but certainly not this, nor the slightly less ambitious plans for “The Line”. It’s not exactly money laundering, but it is a way to funnel money towards big international consulting and engineering firms.

i wouldnt say its a way to funnel money toward construction related business, more like they are showing up to the saudi cash pig trough to snort up some loot from this nutcase.

because why not come and take the money.

later when it comes time for shovels to hit the dirt and reality sets in for mbs at best it will be just another resort with some sort of odd flair hook like a space needle or something to get notice.

[mrnyc]

surprize!




Saudis Scale Back Ambition for $1.5 Trillion Desert Project Neom

Zainab Fattah and Matthew Martin
Fri, Apr 5, 2024 at 12:27 PM EDT4 min read


(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia has scaled back its medium-term ambitions for the desert development of Neom, the biggest project within Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for diversifying the oil-dependent economy, according to people familiar with the matter.


more:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi...162752253.html

[iheartthed]

^End of the ZIRP era

[BnaBreaker]

So from 170km long to MAYBE 2km by 2030. Lol... yeah, no shock there.

[mrnyc]

reminder it ain't the west people --


Neom: Saudi forces 'told to kill' to clear land for eco-city

24 hours ago
By Merlyn Thomas & Lara El Gibaly,
BBC Verify and BBC Eye Investigations


Saudi authorities have permitted the use of lethal force to clear land for a futuristic desert city being built by dozens of Western companies, an ex-intelligence officer has told the BBC.

Col Rabih Alenezi says he was ordered to evict villagers from a tribe in the Gulf state to make way for The Line, part of the Neom eco-project.

One of them was subsequently shot and killed for protesting against eviction.

The Saudi government and Neom management refused to comment.

Neom, Saudi Arabia's $500bn (£399bn) eco-region, is part of its Saudi Vision 2030 strategy which aims to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil.


more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68945445

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by JManc

Exactly. It's an arcology like numerous others envisioned over the years and you'd think more here would grasp that.

30 years ago, no one actually though this was a reality.

Well sure, but at a certain point would it launch itself into space, leaving a denuded city map, is the real question we should all be asking.


Source.

[badrunner]

I hate this thing with a passion but I will say that futuristic and minimalist is a better aesthetic for Saudi Arabia than whatever the fuck this thing is:


wikipedia

[MolsonExport]

120km long, higher than the ESB. How could they even build it for half a trillion? Building the ESB today would cost, what, 2-4 billion? How many could you line up for NEOM? 10,000? More?

Think about how insane this is. How much material is required. How impossible-sounding it seems. An Archology of epic proportions. Do they expect tens of millions of people to live in this thing?

Reminds me of my crazy early days of playing Simcity 2000, when I would eventually cover nearly the entire space with these guys. Ugly city, for sure, but that population of 50 million was something to behold!

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by badrunner

... whatever the fuck this thing is:


wikipedia

Totalitarian Islamic Las Vegas

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Totalitarian Islamic Las Vegas

Yeah it's very Las Vegas - garish and over the top. It makes Dubai look classy and understated in comparison .

As for this NEOM project, it'll never be built as originally conceived. It just feels like a giant vanity project and a colossal waste of resources.

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

120km long, higher than the ESB. How could they even build it for half a trillion? Building the ESB today would cost, what, 2-4 billion? How many could you line up for NEOM? 10,000? More?

Think about how insane this is. How much material is required. How impossible-sounding it seems. An Archology of epic proportions. Do they expect tens of millions of people to live in this thing?

Reminds me of my crazy early days of playing Simcity 2000, when I would eventually cover nearly the entire space with these guys. Ugly city, for sure, but that population of 50 million was something to behold!

It's only a true arcology if it's self-sufficient. If it has vertical farms for food, if it generates all the power it needs, and if it recycles all its water and waste.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

120km long, higher than the ESB. How could they even build it for half a trillion? Building the ESB today would cost, what, 2-4 billion? How many could you line up for NEOM? 10,000? More?

Think about how insane this is. How much material is required. How impossible-sounding it seems. An Archology of epic proportions. Do they expect tens of millions of people to live in this thing?

Reminds me of my crazy early days of playing Simcity 2000, when I would eventually cover nearly the entire space with these guys. Ugly city, for sure, but that population of 50 million was something to behold!

Arcologies!

[chris08876]

Something like this is not good for illness prevention. Any good pathogen will easily spread in a confined space. As this plans to have a rail component over the 120 km range, easy transmission.

If this is complete, suppose millions live within it, any solid MERS outbreak would be terrible. A 120 km incubation tube on a mass level.

The Saudis mean well but often ideas like this are a biproduct of the 2nd minute after a good snorting of thy cocaine from the table. Has ambition... but eventually turns out to not go anywhere.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Who else now has the SimCity2000 theme song stuck in their head?

Reticulating splines.

[MolsonExport]

Reticulating Splines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEjXuuwI0oE

[JManc]

I still have my copy of SC 2000