Etihad Rail engineers strategically deploy millions of native Ghaf trees and massive aerodynamic geometric sand fences across the Rub al Khali desert to forcefully alter wind…

A closer look

Deserts do not care about your multi-billion-dollar freight rail project. The Rub al Khali is home to 'migrating dunes'—mountains of sand that literally walk across the landscape with the wind. Instead of hopelessly shoveling sand off the tracks forever, Etihad Rail engineers turned to aggressive terraforming. They built precisely angled aerodynamic walls and planted millions of drought-resistant trees to physically alter local aerodynamics, forcing the wind to drop its sand exactly where they want it, miles away from their trains.