3,120 metres of railing across Riyadh Metro Lines 5 & 6

The challenge

Two things made this harder than a standard handrail package. The first was scale and spread: 3,120 metres of railing distributed across stations rather than concentrated in one building, so every batch had to be fabricated, finished and delivered to a different site on a different programme.

The second was the glass. Each panel measures two metres wide, and no off-the-shelf accessory on the market was rated to carry that weight on an exposed run. Because the installations are outdoors, the client also required a system that could be repaired in sections — a damaged panel or post had to come out without dismantling the whole line.

What we designed

Rather than buy in a fitting that would not hold, we designed our own: a U-channel welded directly onto the post, sized to carry a two-metre panel without adding visible hardware. Welding it into the post rather than bolting on a bracket meant the load path went straight into the structure, and the line of the railing stayed clean — no sacrifice in appearance or in quality.

The whole system was then broken into three-metre sections with jointed connections instead of continuous runs. Any single section can be lifted out and replaced on site, which is what makes an exposed public installation maintainable over its life.

Two designs, two users

The project called for two railing designs serving different users. The first is the general circulation design for pedestrian traffic. The second is a double-handrail system for passengers with reduced mobility, with the upper rail at 900 mm and a second rail at 700 mm on a 48 mm tube, so a user can take hold at whichever height suits them.

Both designs share the same stainless sections and finish, so adjacent runs read as one system even where the function changes.

Delivery

Every section was cut, formed, welded and polished in our Riyadh workshop, then delivered station by station and installed by our own crews. Finishing was matched across batches so that runs fabricated months apart are indistinguishable once installed.