Firms have submitted revised proposals for the contract to build the tunnels that will serve as the railway junction connecting the Spine with the Neom Connector.

MEED understands that contractors submitted the offers on 10 November after Neom extended the deadline from 27 October.

Known as the Delta Junction, the project involves 26.5 kilometres (km) of tunnelling work that will be split into two lots, one for the north and the other for the south.

Neom invited selected contractors to submit bids to complete the tunnels in April last year. The evaluation process neared completion earlier this year, but stalled for unknown reasons.

MEED understands that the work was previously divided into five packages. Each package involved excavating about 5km of tunnels through hard rock using drill-and-blast and cut-and-cover techniques.

The Spine is the infrastructure corridor running alongside The Line. It includes a high-speed rail line that links to the Connector South, which runs to the Oxagon industrial zone and the port at Duba on the Red Sea coast.

US-based Aecom is the design consultant, and Bechtel is the project management consultant for the Spine.

Construction work on the railway network at Neom started last year, when a joint venture of Italy-based Webuild and Riyadh-headquartered Shibh Al-Jazira Contracting (Sajco) secured a $1.5bn contract to build the Connector South line.

The contract involves the construction of a 75km railway line, including earthworks, 14 viaducts, seven roads, nine rail underpasses, 152 pipe and box culverts, a freight line, infrastructure maintenance depots and associated facilities.

The infrastructure corridor will run south from The Line to Neom City Station.