Saudi Arabia’s Ambitious Projects from World’s Largest Airport to Skyscraper
Saudi Arabia is undergoing a construction and megaproject boom with multiple projects under development. Building a supertall tower, as Dubai has found with the Burj Khalifa, can be a catalyst for further development and act as a flagpole to attract other investment projects. Saudi Arabia is planning to build a 2km skyscraper in Riyadh that would become the world’s tallest building. The proposed tower will be more than double the height of the world’s tallest building – Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which is 828 metres tall. Contractors that have priced towers in the region say that depending on the final design, a 2km-tall structure could cost about $5bn to construct. For the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the cost of the tower was justified because it enhanced the land values of the surrounding Downtown district. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman International Airport will soon join the world’s largest airports, as it aims to become one among them. Currently, the world’s largest airport by area is King Fahd International, which is also located in the kingdom. The airport is expected to cover an area of an approximately 57 km sq, featuring six parallel runways and the existing terminals named after King Khalid. Elsewhere in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia is developing $500bn megacity NEOM, introducing a luxury ski resort and using AI to build a roadless 170km long city of the future known as the Line.