A digital ultrasonic image construction system was developed for the nondestructive detection of cracks in water distribution pipes. The system consists of PC based ultrasonic testing system and a scanning device. The PC based ultrasonic system has an ultrasonic pulse/receive board for the generation and reception of ultrasonic signals, an analogue to digital conversion board for the digitization of the received ultrasonic signals, and transducers for the ultrasonic sensors. Using this system, the digitized ultrasonic signals were properly constructed in accordance with the position information obtained by scanning device that moves an ultrasonic transducer along the outer surface of pipes. In the construction of the ultrasonic signals, signal processing concepts, such as spatial average and array concept, were considered to enhance the resolution of ultrasonic images of pipe wall. Using the developed system, crack detection experiments were performed in both laboratory and field, which shows promise for crack detection in the water distribution system.