20th October 2012, 10:24 PM
Have been involved in several schemes where they've tried to go around (or are planning to go around) Scheduled sites - invariably resulting in hitting just as much archaeology as if they'd just taken the shortest route. Most Scheduled 'area'-type sites are drawn far too tightly, it would be better if they widened a lot of them out but then allowed more e.g. roads to go through but with stricter/higher levels of archaeology - gives at least some handle on the character of all the other stuff to either side which is in danger otherwise of remaining a complete mystery till the end of time?
An example of idiotic intended preservation 'in situ' is the proposed widening of the A1 embankment to the north of the Swale over the northern suburb of Cataractonium Roman town (typically up to 1m of well-preserved strat) - according to the ES they're just going to bury all the buildings fronting onto one side of Dere Street under a huge motorway embankment which is unlikely ever to be removed, i.e. the archaeology will be effectively 'lost' without record. In the 20+ years since that scheme was first planned (currently postponed again) some university could have had the whole thing meticulously dug as a training dig, or could have been a cracking community project? And the rest of us would have had a considerably better understanding of a site that's otherwise 'untouchable'
An example of idiotic intended preservation 'in situ' is the proposed widening of the A1 embankment to the north of the Swale over the northern suburb of Cataractonium Roman town (typically up to 1m of well-preserved strat) - according to the ES they're just going to bury all the buildings fronting onto one side of Dere Street under a huge motorway embankment which is unlikely ever to be removed, i.e. the archaeology will be effectively 'lost' without record. In the 20+ years since that scheme was first planned (currently postponed again) some university could have had the whole thing meticulously dug as a training dig, or could have been a cracking community project? And the rest of us would have had a considerably better understanding of a site that's otherwise 'untouchable'