One of the largest water projects of its time, the Riyadh Water Transmission System (RWTS), is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. 

The RWTS (Lines A & B) went into operation in the course of 1983. It was the world's first closed high-pressure water pipeline system, designed to transport 830,000m³ of water daily from Al Jubayl on the Arabian Gulf over 467 km to Riyadh. In an innovative concept, ILF designed a system consisting of a "60-double line" with a total delivery head of 2340 m, a head station, five intermediate pumping stations (each without tanks) and a total drive power of 430 MW. It was the first closed high-pressure pipeline system for water transportation in the world.

The project was built on budget in just under 3 years under the management of ILF. The innovative technical concept proved its worth right from the start and made engineering history. And the RWTS is still transporting water to Riyadh today.

To this day, RWTS serves as a technical model for many follow-up projects, especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is also a model for decades of trusting customer relationships and for the unique cooperation between the ILF companies involved (primarily from Austria, Germany and Saudi Arabia).