(Vice-President), in opening the discussion, said that he had been invited to speak by the Authors, whom he had known for many years. One was on each side of the fence and, in the words of the Psalmist, 'How blessed it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity'.142. This was a most exciting Paper, and the caisson itself had strong traces in its design of a 'Rendel Palmer' or even a 'Cuerelian' touch, whereas the method of execution, including the use of segments, looked very much 'Nuttallian'. Perhaps something could be said by the Authors on this conjecture. 143. The Paper sprang, he thought, from a suggestion made in the Publications Committee of having a symposium on all the various different intakes of cooling water for atomic power stations. The problem was the same whether it was a refinery or power station or any other means of getting water out of the sea. With all the many different types which were in use and going to be used, and with the conditions varying so much with so many things-whether the ground was rocky or soft, the range of tide and buoyancy-all of which could make violent differences in design, it was obvious that a book could be written on the whole question.144. Mr Harding had done a little work at sea in the past and was qualified to make two comments. In working in the sea there was no such thing as temporary works. They were either permanent or transitory! Secondly, there was the importance of moorings. A paper on this question would be of value. If there were serious mooring problems, it was as well to have a nautical man on the job and not to try to invent ways to do it oneself.145. In the description of the landing pads it was stated that a tank landing craft was used for lifting and lowering, and apparently it stood by to do the grouting and other operations.146. These tank landing craft had been a most useful form of war-time surplus equipment. Mr Harding recalled buying one, together with a 304011 crane ship, for €12 000 each, in full working order. But to buy a new one would cost about €120 000.147. A lot of work of this sort in the sea could be done more easily if there were expensive self-propelled lifting craft and other craft available which might entirely alter a lot of the methods used; but such craft did not exist and in any single intake there was not enough money to spend on plant of such magnitude which. if it existed, could go from intake to intake and spread the cost over all. If there were some speculative millionaire who would build some such craft to a civil engineer's specification, it would be a great help and might eventually pay for itself.
To me, this project is symbolic of the enormous recovery that has taken place in port construction projects in Britain compared with the lean years immediately after World War 11. The Papers teach us, however, that the 50 years that the locusts have eaten have given us the opportunity to perfect our techniques in these constructions.2. I feel it is a happy coincidence that 1970 which has seen the opening of this project has also seen the institution by two provincial universities (acting jointly) of a one year postgraduate course in maritime civil engineering leading to a master's degree in the subject.3. Even a most cursory study of the Papers reveals the enormously sophisticated and scientific approach that has now been developed. This is the first harbour constructed in open water since that at Dover at the beginning of the century. Those of us who have had occasion to deal with the somewhat fickle and peculiar tidal conditions which develop inside Dover Harbour may well be tempted to wonder how it would have been designed had the means which were at the disposal of the designers of Port Talbot been available.4. It was surprising to me to learn that rocks of no more than 6-8 tons were found by experiment and in experience to be adequate for armouring the breakwaters. At Fishguard, it is recorded"' that 30 ton boulders were insufficient to resist a drag-down to the ultimate angle of repose of the material and 40 ton armour blocks had to be placed there as recently as 1913.5. I have one other question to the Contractors. The raking piles for the detached dolphins were driven from floating craft. 1 have on occasions found this a troublesome operation, particularly on those occasions when the rate of penetration of the pile is not as fast as the rate of fall of the tide and the floating craft has to drift down the rake of the pile. I should like to know if there was any trouble with this at Port Talbot.
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