Opening address

I think the organizing committee is to be congratulated on the work it has done. From the support that it has received from all over the world it is obvious that a conference of this sort on this particular subject is most apposite at the present time. Certainly the support of so many authors of world-wide renown is most encouraging.

While diaphragm walling in the sense of this Conference is in fact new in the UK (the first application was the construction of the Hyde Park underpass in 1967) we must remember that the use of sheet piling, which in effect is diaphragm walling, started almost beyond living memory.