# Saudi is planning a 75 mile long building



## Astro Pen (Jul 25, 2022)

Audacious idea. I will say that I can see issues. Build quality of this de facto city island will have to be ultra long term durable.  
How energy use, utilities and the econo social groupings will work will be interesting.








						Saudi unveils plans for 75-MILE long desert skyscraper Mirror Line
					

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced in January 2021 and said he wanted to be greater than the Egyptian Pyramids.




					www.dailymail.co.uk


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## Christine Wheelwright (Jul 25, 2022)

Just think how much they would have to build each day to get the 75 miles done by 2030.  Obviously not going to happen.  It is going to be interesting to see how they spend their oil wealth in the coming years though.


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## Le Panda du Mal (Jul 25, 2022)

_He did so after saying he wanted his country to house a construction project as iconic and timeless as the Pyramids of Egypt. _

Well for one thing the Pyramids were made of something a bit more durable than glass... 

Mr. Bone Saw's hubris would be humorous if it wasn't backed by so much death and misery. If this thing even gets completed I suspect it will be a mostly empty shell, an extremely expensive showpiece with little utility, before it's finally abandoned when the Kingdom goes bankrupt or collapses.



Christine Wheelwright said:


> Just think how much they would have to build each day to get the 75 miles done by 2030.  Obviously not going to happen.  It is going to be interesting to see how they spend their oil wealth in the coming years though.



Saudi's oil wealth- and their pockets- are not bottomless and they are running out of time.


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## BAYLOR (Jul 25, 2022)

Christine Wheelwright said:


> Just think how much they would have to build each day to get the 75 miles done by 2030.  Obviously not going to happen.  It is going to be interesting to see how they spend their oil wealth in the coming years though.



What if any would be the environmental impact of building such a structure ?


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## Danny McG (Jul 25, 2022)

They could build one forty miles long out of diamonds, and fill it full of chewing gum


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## psikeyhackr (Jul 25, 2022)

The Twin Towers took from 1966 to 1973.

They were 208 ft square in cross section. 

What could an earthquake do to a building 75 miles long? Is this beyond ridiculous?


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## Danny McG (Sep 28, 2022)

Danny McG said:


> They could build one forty miles long out of diamonds, and fill it full of chewing gum


*In a snit now because nobody commented on my Tom Sawyer quote*


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## Wayne Mack (Sep 28, 2022)

psikeyhackr said:


> The Twin Towers took from 1966 to 1973.
> 
> They were 208 ft square in cross section.
> 
> What could an earthquake do to a building 75 miles long? Is this beyond ridiculous?


Earthquake concerns can likely be alleviated. For reference, the world's longest bridge is over 100 miles in length and has not collapsed due to earthquakes. It took four years to construct. What's the World's Longest Bridge?


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## Robert Zwilling (Sep 28, 2022)

Seems like its not so much of a tall bridge, looks more like an elevated highway. Have to wait for an earthquake to see how well it stands up. In California earthquakes, as much as a mile of an elevated highway falls down, but not the whole thing.

While they could build a flexible foundation and do so for regular narrow footprint high rise buildings, I don't think that would be enough for a long building. There would have to be flexible connections between all the sections. Even then, a narrow highrise building only has to rock back and forth, its not knocking against anything. A long building would respond more like a slinky and if the swaying of any individual sections got out of synch with the rest of the sections, I think a lot of it would fall down like dominoes.


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## Vladd67 (Sep 28, 2022)

So engineers say it could take 50 years to build this, do we think that Saudia Arabia will still have the money for this in 50 or so years?


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## Parson (Sep 28, 2022)

It seems to me that for something to make sense there has to be a need for it. I don't see any need for a 75 mile long building in a desert. Now if the Japanese were thinking of constructing such an island, at least there would be some need for the land.


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## mosaix (Sep 28, 2022)

If it’s 75 miles long it will have to follow the curvature of the Earth.  I wonder how that will affect spirit levels when they’re laying the foundations?


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## Elckerlyc (Sep 28, 2022)

Robert Zwilling said:


> While they could build a flexible foundation and do so for regular narrow footprint high rise buildings, I don't think that would be enough for a long building. There would have to be flexible connections between all the sections.


They would to have to do that anyway, because of the curvature of the Earth

Dang! @mosaix beat me to it!


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## BAYLOR (Sep 28, 2022)

It can't be done.


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## Vladd67 (Sep 29, 2022)

Well according to the article to take account of the curvature of the earth it will sit on struts, with a high speed train running below it. So this massive structure is going to be on stilts?


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## mosaix (Sep 29, 2022)

Elckerlyc said:


> Dang! @mosaix beat me to it!


By two minutes!


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## Elckerlyc (Sep 29, 2022)

mosaix said:


> By two minutes!


Or 1 minute, 2 seconds. (the time-stamp doesn't show seconds.)
Still, well done, Sir!


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## BAYLOR (Sep 29, 2022)

The words colossal Boondoggle comes to mind .


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## Wayne Mack (Sep 29, 2022)

Parson said:


> It seems to me that for something to make sense there has to be a need for it. I don't see any need for a 75 mile long building in a desert. Now if the Japanese were thinking of constructing such an island, at least there would be some need for the land.


Many times it is desire rather than need that drives efforts. Search for "Dubai Images" to see some rather impressive engineering projects that have already been completed. A lot of human advancement has been driven by the desire to do something difficult rather than due to pure need.


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## Harpo (Dec 13, 2022)

Vladd67 said:


> So engineers say it could take 50 years to build this, do we think that Saudia Arabia will still have the money for this in 50 or so years?


It seems they have a history of building long structures over several generations








						Mysterious Patterns Span The Arabian Desert, And We May Finally Know Why
					

The deserts of Saudi Arabia were once the lush and fertile homes of ancient people more than 8,000 years ago.




					www.sciencealert.com


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## Vladd67 (Dec 13, 2022)

So work continues. 


			https://www.arabianbusiness.com/industries/construction/neom-new-satellite-images-reveals-saudi-arabias-the-line-under-construction


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## Robert Zwilling (Dec 14, 2022)

Interesting that you can find some not so upbeat articles in the same publication. It could be an example of what life would be like in an upscale space station, or a cradle to grave zero privacy situation. The whole place would have to be covered with sensors of all kinds to control and monitor environmental conditions. Thermal sensors could be used in a wide variety of applications, including human movement.


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## Vladd67 (Dec 17, 2022)

Architecture studios "benefiting" from human rights violations at Neom
					

The architecture studios designing Neom in Saudi Arabia are facing a "moral dilemma", says Amnesty International's Peter Frankental in this exclusive interview.




					www.dezeen.com


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## Swank (Dec 17, 2022)

"I'll meet you at the north side of the building."

"I don't see you."

"I'm right here."


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## AE35Unit (Dec 17, 2022)

Good for saudi...


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## Venusian Broon (Dec 22, 2022)

If you have the time, I thoroughly recommend the *Well There's Your Problem *podcast episode on Gulf State Vanity Projects, which does get to the '170km Line City' near the end. (Also has a bonus bit at the end on Norwegian petrochemical dollars being spent on things like 'floating' underwater road tunnels!


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