Red Line (Tel Aviv Light Rail)

The BOT agreement with the MTS consortium was signed on February 2007 and construction was to start a year later, in February 2008.[4] However, the consortium was unable to secure the necessary financing and was given several extensions to the agreed timetable. The difficulties raising the funding was attributed to the global financial crisis and specifically to the financial problems at Africa Israel Investments Group.[5] In November 2009, the Israeli government announced that it was considering canceling the agreement with the consortium and granted another extension until March 2010. It was announced that if funding is not secured by then, the government will consider other options for financing the railway, including the option of using public instead of private funding for the project. The deadline was then extended again to summer 2010 and in August the government, after extensive negotiations with MTS failed, finally canceled the MTS concession, though MTS indicated it would appeal the government's decision in arbitration proceeding.

Following the cancellation of the MTS contract, the government announced that it would fund the construction directly from the Treasury and that NTA would manage subsequent phases of construction. As a result, NTA published a tender for the design of multiple launching shafts for the TBMs that would dig the 11 km of tunnels for the railway. In March 2011, the shafts' construction tender was published as well, in addition to a tender for the design of the Kiryat Aryeh depot. The anticipated overall completion date of the railway is 31 December 2017.[6] On December 20, 2010 the transfer of the entire project's management to NTA was approved by the project's arbitrators with MTS. On January 12, 2012 NTA published a pre-qualify (PQ) bid for the design-build contract for excavating the Red and Green lines' tunnels to be performed by several TBMs operating simultaneously.

To date, NTA, the Government body responsible for the mass-transit development in the Tel Aviv region has spent several years performing utility relocation and right-of-way clearing for the railway. The bulk of the work however, including underground excavation, is to be carried out by the operator.

On April 10, 2008, works started on the conversion of part of the Jabotinsky Rd. in Petah Tikva into a sunken passage below Kaplan St.[8]

As part of the preparatory works for the line, the main entrance to the Batei HaOsef museum in south Tel Aviv was cleared and relocated. The Bank HaPoalim branch on Herzl Street in the same area was also demolished.[9]

In September 2011, work started on constructing 3 launching shafts for the TBMs[10]

• Herzl Street shaft - located at the point where a cut and cover section ends and the tunneled section starts, would be used to launch TBMs in an easterly direction.
• Galei Gil car park shaft - located near the Ayalon Highway - would be used to launch TBMs in both easterly and westerly directions.
• Em HaMoshavot shaft - located near Highway 4 in Bnei Brak, would be used to launch TBMs in an westerly direction.

Eastern end of the Red Line tunnel at the depot in Petah Tikva

In May 2015, the companies Solel Boneh and China Railway Tunnel Group won the 2.9 Billion NIS tender to build two 5 kilometer tunnels and 6 underground stations in the western section of the Tel Aviv light rail's red line.[11]

In June 2015, the companies Danya Cebus and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation(CCECC) won the 700 Million NIS tender to build underground Carlebach station of the Tel Aviv light rail's red line.