The Fifth System for Jerusalem

The Fifth Water System for Jerusalem is Mekorot’s flagship project. The system is designed to meet the demand for water in Israel’s capital and largest city over the next 50 years by significantly increasing the supply of desalinated water to Jerusalem, from its creation at sea level, a difference in altitude of approx. 900 meters. This is a mega-project, which due to its importance has been recognized by the Israeli government as a national infrastructure enterprise.

This is an unprecedented engineering challenge: mining a water tunnel 13 km long, the first of its kind in the world to be carried out by a TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) process. Such tunnel will enable the raising of the water to the required heights, through mountainous and transversed terrain which is also highly sensitive in terms of landscape.

In this complex project, Gabi Shoef Ltd. is currently performing ultrasound tests on the welds in all 1000 pipes with a diameter of 102″ using an advanced testing method – PHASED ARRAY. The technology scans the volume of the weld and detects internal defects that may cause failures in metal continuity.