Closing address

IRST, I should like to express the appreciation of the Organizing Committee on the support that has been given to this Conference. As expected, there were no great revelations at this Conference about piling, but it did offer a forum for valuable exchange of experience between all those concerned with important aspects of foundation engineering.

F26. The practice of piling is very different from other kinds of civil engineering in that the finished product is out of sight and therefore enormous trust has to be built up between those who design piles and those who form them. Piling can be one of the most difficult operations in civil engineering. It is my view that this Conference confirms that piling is essentially and very much a matter of judgement, and is not very susceptible to sophisticated calculations. The genuine attempts by many engineers in universities and research stations to provide more facts upon which judgements can be based must not be overlooked. The best judgements are based on facts, in which piling is sadly lacking.