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Neom awards $5bn contract for Trojena dam project

By Pramod Kumar
Italian company WeBuild will construct three dams to create a 2.8 km-long lake at Trojena, which will host the 2029 Asian Winter Games Neom
Italian company WeBuild will construct three dams to create a 2.8 km-long lake at Trojena, which will host the 2029 Asian Winter Games

Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion Neom giga-project has awarded Italian contractor Webuild a $4.7 billion infrastructure development contract for the Trojena mountain destination.

The Italian company will construct three dams to create the 2.8-km-long freshwater lake at Trojena, which will host the 2029 Asian Winter Games. 

The main dam will be made of roller-compacted concrete (RCC) and will be 145 m high, 475 m long and hold 2.7 million cubic metres of water, Webuild said in a statement.

The second dam will also be in RCC, while the third will be in rock, with a volume of 4.3 million cubic metres.

An artificial lake will cover an area of 1.5 sq km and will have an island for botanical dives and walks. The lake, the kingdom’s largest architecturally crafted body of water, is a central feature of Trojena’s German studio Lava’s designed masterplan.

Webuild will also create the Bow, an architectural structure extending over the lake’s surface beyond the front of the main dam. It will be shaped like the prow of a ship suspended over the valley, and house a luxury hotel, a residential area and a large central atrium for hospitality facilities.

More than 10,000 people, including direct and third-party personnel, will be involved in the construction.

“We have already completed around three million cubic metres of excavation at the lake site, and we continue to excavate 90,000 cubic metres of rock per week,” said Philip Gullett, executive director, region head, at Trojena. 

Webuild is already constructing 57 km of the Connector high-speed railway line between Oxagon and The Line in Neom.

In addition, the company is working on line 3 of the underground metro in Riyadh, which, at 42 km, will be the longest line in the Saudi capital.

With its Fisia Italimpianti subsidiary, Webuild is engaged in the construction and long-term management of the water treatment plant at the Zuluf onshore oil complex. 

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