RIYADH: The Riyadh Metro is establishing a new standard for urban transportation in the Kingdom in a metropolis whose infrastructure has not kept up with its fast development. With six lines, 176 kilometers of track, and 85 stations, the $23 billion mega-project is one of the biggest metro systems ever constructed in a single phase. During development, Riyadh’s intricate urban and geological settings presented special difficulties. Because of the hard breccia and limestone beneath the city’s surface, specialized tunnel boring machines, or TBMs, were needed to handle these challenging circumstances.
The senior director of AtkinsRealis, which oversaw the design of Lines 4, 5, and 6, Roger Cruickshank, told Arab News that the geological circumstances required both technical sophistication and real-time adaptability to assure both speed and precision. To improve connectivity throughout the city, the metro’s 17 at-grade and 11 underground stations were positioned thoughtfully. Furthermore, Riyadh’s current road networks have to be carefully taken into account when integrating elevated, at-grade, and underground trains.
“The key to reducing disruption was reorganizing road networks and making sure that transitions between transit modes were seamless,” Cruickshank stated . Level 4 automation, which does away with the necessity for onboard operators, is one of the Riyadh Metro’s distinguishing features. With the use of sophisticated algorithms and real-time data, centralized control centers oversee operations and guarantee flawless performance. Geotechnical monitoring instruments that continuously evaluate the health of the infrastructure, such as fiber optic sensors and automated data collecting systems, support this system.
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