1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cofferdam

COFFERDAM, in engineering. To enable foundations (q.v.) to be laid in a site which is under water, the engineer sometimes surrounds it with an embankment or dam, known as a cofferdam, to form an enclosure from which the water is excluded. Where the depth of water is small and the current slight, simple clay dams may be used, but in general cofferdams consist of two rows of piles, the space between which is packed with clay puddle. The dam must be sufficiently strong to withstand the exterior pressure to which it is exposed when the enclosed space is pumped dry.