Saudi Arabia — One of the ambitious construction projects in the history of the Middle East appears to be cancelled.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Saudi Arabia has cancelled two key contracts that were central to the construction of Trojena. On Tuesday, Malaysia’s Eversendai Corporation announced that its steel contract with Trojena had been terminated. On Wednesday, Italy’s WeBuild confirmed that its contract to build a multi-billion-dollar dam and freshwater lake had been axed. It’s unclear whether the Trojena project has been cancelled entirely or if construction is just on pause.
The news comes amidst the fallout of the regional war between Israel, the United States, and Iran, which has resulted in attacks on other neighboring countries, such as Lebanon.
Trojena was an ambitious project within the Neom plan, which aimed to create new experiences for tourists by 2030. The ski resort, which planned to operate on snow for three months each winter, would have had over 30 kms of slopes served by modern lift infrastructure. The surrounding villages would’ve featured 11 hotels, a wellness resort, a golf course, retail and dining spaces, and a massive man-made freshwater lake.
Warning Signs
The warning signs that this wasn’t going to happen have slowly built up over the years. The first red flag came as allegations emerged that the Saudis forcibly removed settlers from their land to construct Neom, the larger development that included Trojena. This led to some international scrutiny of the plans and the departure of former Palisades Tahoe CEO Andy Wirth. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations.
The second red flag was last year’s reports that Saudi Arabia was scaling back its Neom projects due to cost overruns. However, it originally appeared that the cuts weren’t impacting Trojena’s construction.
The third red flag came with the need to move the 2029 Asian Winter Games, which was announced in January. Originally selected to host the games, Saudi Arabia backed out, leading to the games being moved to Kazakhstan. Very nice!
Then there’s the reality that they were trying to build this in the middle of the desert. Even if it’s cold enough there at times, pulling this off was always going to be a large undertaking. Add in the currently unstable situation in the Middle East, and this project appears to be over.
On the bright side for the Saudis, Six Flags Qiddiya City looks pretty sick.
