Session A.1: Opening Plenary

Clearly at Alderrney the profile was inadequate for the exposure conditions. How could they have overcome that if they had known – for example what construction options would have been available to achieve a more effective hydraulic profile for the breakwater, and what shape of profile would be the most effective?

In essence, the improvements that they would have needed are those that were later applied to Tyne and Dover breakwaters, and they fall under three headings:

The frustrating aspect of analysing the Alderney breakwater is that the second two technologies were available during the construction of Alderney, and were indeed applied in part as construction proceeded. But understanding on wave action was missing / incomplete, particularly on near-structure transformations.