A Hybrid Cut-Off Wall at the Dead SeaÂ-Video

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Arab Potash Company’s solar ponds near the Dead Sea were losing an estimated 100 million cubic metres of brine annually, wasting product and creating dangerous sinkholes in the dike. Bauer constructed a hybrid cutoff wall, extending the project from an initial four kilometres to nearly 12 kilometres and reaching depths of about 30 metres.<br /><br />The design combined sheet piles with deformable, low-permeability, erosion-resistant backfill. Construction required adapting to highly saline groundwater, fragile halite geology, extreme heat and complex international supply chains during COVID-19. Bauer used brine-based support fluid with salt-resistant clay and polymers, and carefully cooled and placed plastic concrete on both sides of the sheet piles. Long-term laboratory tests assessed the concrete’s resistance to the chemically aggressive brine.<br /><br />Before-and-after images showed the leakage was resolved. The project also reused treated wastewater to irrigate a green camp in the water-scarce desert. Bauer described the completed structure as the world’s deepest cutoff wall.

Keywords

Dead Sea

cutoff wall

brine leakage

sheet piles

Arab Potash Company