Opening address

Ladies and gentlemen, firstly I would like to thank our Chairman, Mr Currie, for his kind introduction and to welcome you most heartily to the conference.

Looking around me, I am interested and pleased to note the number of young faces in the audience and this puts me in mind of the early objectives of the Institution of Civil Engineers. The Institution's role as a gathering of members became a learned society, the development of which has included conferences such as this.

The Institution was formed by a group of young men in the early 19th century who wished to gain from the experience of others and not just from their masters. The all-embracing title 'Civil Engineer' was used to differentiate from military engineering. From the earliest times public works which, by their nature, required a regulated labour force were undertaken by kings and armies and the captives they enslaved or serfs under direction. The early days of the Institution embraced the era of canals, aqueducts, irrigation and toll roads, but the railway age was upon us.