183 



Mr. Pollock. Would you yield ? 



Mr. Rtjppe. I yield. 



Mr. Pollock. Dr. Kavanagli, I notice in the beginning of your 

 statement on the first page right at the bottom line that you talked 

 in terms of planning, design, and management of facilities and struc- 

 tures in the region of the coastal zone on the continental shelf. 



Did you mean your term "the coastal zone" to include the 3-mile and 

 contiguous zones ? 



Dr. Kavanagh. My own professional practice is as a civil engineer 

 and my practice brings me into all of the deeper portions of the coastal 

 zone in connection with beach erosion problems, deep foundations, 

 deep tanker facilities, berthing facilities and maritime work of this 

 type, structures in the coastal area. 



We call this in our field, coastal engineering. This happens to be 

 one of the areas of my particular practice. 



Mr. Pollock. From our point of view we think of coastal zone as 

 the 3-mile area and then we have the contiguous 9-mile zone and then 

 the Continental Shelf. Of course, all of this could be part of the Conti- 

 nental Shelf. I just wondered if you meant to exclude the contiguous 

 zone. 



Dr. Kavanagh. Not at all. As a matter of fact, we have made studies 

 in my particular private office. For instance, one of the focal projects 

 mentioned by the commission is a project concerned with floating stable 

 platforms. 



The idea of a stable floating platform is an extremely important 

 one which, technologically speaking, we have the answer for right 

 now. Therefore, as to the Commission specif ying_ this joarticular proj- 

 ect as a focal project or as a national project in which some study 

 ought to be made, the technology is really there. 



We have in our office, for example, the people who were involved in 

 the design of the breakwaters, towed across the channel during the 

 Normandy Beachhead invasion. We have bridges standing upon float- 

 ing structures. We have piers, very large piers, in New York, standing 

 on floating structures, but the concept can be expanded with our exist- 

 ing technology to include even things like nuclear plants, floating not 

 just within 3 miles but offshore as far as you like. 



The technology of this is there and certainly we do work in this 

 area regardless of limits of 3 miles or contiguous zone. 



This is just an example of my own practice where we are capable of 

 doing these things, and I point out that in this case technology is 

 available to do this and it doesn't require fundamental research or 

 development. It requires a project. 



Engineers don't operate in a vacuum. They operate on a project. 

 The idea of demonstration projects, or as they are sometimes called, 

 prototype or focal projects, is a very good one to approach any engi- 

 neering problem. 



Mr. Pollock. In my country of Alaska in Cook Inlet where there 

 are a number of platforms for drilling oil, we have the second highest 

 tides in the world. We have quite a flow of tide. Your statement is 

 rather intriguing. I don't know how jour floating stable platforms 

 would work against very high tides. 



Dr. Kavanagh. I personally made a study of an airport ojff the city 

 of New York. 



