This week marked significant progress for the high-speed railway connecting Saudi Arabia’s NEOM mega project, The Line, as construction phases for its underground parking and light rail tunnel were completed.

XCMG Machinery, a China-based company, announced to shareholders that contractors had finished the construction work on both the parking lot and the tunnel along The Spine infrastructure corridor ahead of schedule in July 2024, utilizing XCMG's advanced equipment.

The project employed ten high-capacity rotary drilling rigs from XCMG, each completing three piles per day. These rigs managed deep foundation work in challenging sandy geologies. Specifically, the rigs included four units of XR500E and two units each of XR600E, XR320D, and XR400D. These rigs handled pile foundations ranging from 60-90 meters deep and 2-2.5 meters in diameter.

The XR600E, notable for being the largest tonnage drilling rig used in the NEOM city construction, is also the largest model exported from China. Despite arriving on-site a month later than other machinery, these rigs completed their tasks two weeks early.

The Spine, first announced in 2017, is an infrastructure corridor designed to move people and goods along the linear smart city, which aims to eliminate cars, streets, and carbon emissions. Originally planned to be 170 kilometers long and accommodate nine million people, recent reports suggest the project may have been scaled down.

Currently, the NEOM project employs over 140,000 construction workers on-site, according to XCMG.