Roads Before Rides: Inside the Sports Boulevard Wadi Hanifa Road Works Tender and What Comes Next

This Sports Boulevard Wadi Hanifa road works tender also reads as a sequencing move. The Sports Boulevard project is divided into multiple districts, including the Wadi Hanifah, Arts, Urban Wadi, Entertainment, Athletics and Eco districts, as well as Sands Sports Park. It is intended to run across Riyadh from east to west and, once complete, is planned to be the world’s longest park, stretching more than 135 kilometres. That ambition depends on early civil packages that stitch districts together, unlock access, and prepare utilities and public realm. A road-and-infrastructure contract in Wadi Hanifa is one of those “before the rides” steps.

How the Wadi Hanifa Package Fits the Wider Civil Pipeline

Across the programme, the corridor is described as connecting Wadi Hanifah in the West to Wadi Al Sulay (or Wadi Al Sulai) in the East, extending for more than 135km. Alongside the linear park framing, published programme features include 220km of cycling tracks and 135km of walking paths, reinforcing that mobility and public space are core outputs, not side benefits. Design and delivery narratives also emphasize a “grid of safe green pathways for pedestrians, cyclists, athletes, and horse-riders.” In that context, the Wadi Hanifa road and associated infrastructure package can be read as foundational civil work that supports later layers of destinations and movement networks.

Meanwhile, other packages are progressing in parallel. The Sports Boulevard Foundation is evaluating bids for the Global Sports Tower in the development’s Athletics District. The tower is described as 130 metres tall with a gross floor area of 84,000 square metres and more than 30 sports facilities. It is set to feature what is billed as the world’s tallest indoor climbing wall, at 98 metres, and a 250-metre running track. This is relevant to procurement planning: when landmark destinations advance, so does demand for connecting infrastructure, access management, utilities integration, and public realm interfaces that make the destination usable at scale.

At the programme level, Sports Boulevard is planned to include 4.4 million sq m of public realm and landmark buildings, alongside more than 2.3 million sq m of mixed-use commercial, residential and retail space around the park known as the Linear Park. There is also a Centre for Cinematic Arts and a 2,000-seat amphitheatre. Put together, those figures explain why civil packages tend to be bundled with utilities and public realm, as seen in the Wadi Hanifa road scope. Roads, services, and security systems are the practical prerequisites that allow districts to operate as interconnected places rather than isolated projects.