4th December 2005, 06:05 PM
Well, I have designed and commissioned trial trenching on a couple of contaminated sites in the past.
Any site that is likely to be contaminated will also have geotechnical ground investigations either before or at the same time as the archaeological works, and they will be trying to identify any contamination and its nature. Before they start on site, they will have carried out a desk-top study to identify past land uses that might have given rise to contamination.
When I need to investigate a site that might be contaminated, I liaise with the geotechnical engineers to find out what they know and to seek advice on how to do the archaeological works safely. If necessary, I then change the archaeological methodology in the spec that I write, and I put in all the necessary H&S precautions, before sending it out to tender. These precautions might compromise the archaeological methodology - but the H&S issues have to take priority.
In some cases, I have (with the agreement of the curator) replaced trial trenching with coring, so that we never have a hole that anyone has to enter.
I have in the past done all this on an ad-hoc, project-by-project basis. However, I have recently asked one of my staff to research the issue more thoroughly so as to produce internal company guidelines on how to address this issue.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
Any site that is likely to be contaminated will also have geotechnical ground investigations either before or at the same time as the archaeological works, and they will be trying to identify any contamination and its nature. Before they start on site, they will have carried out a desk-top study to identify past land uses that might have given rise to contamination.
When I need to investigate a site that might be contaminated, I liaise with the geotechnical engineers to find out what they know and to seek advice on how to do the archaeological works safely. If necessary, I then change the archaeological methodology in the spec that I write, and I put in all the necessary H&S precautions, before sending it out to tender. These precautions might compromise the archaeological methodology - but the H&S issues have to take priority.
In some cases, I have (with the agreement of the curator) replaced trial trenching with coring, so that we never have a hole that anyone has to enter.
I have in the past done all this on an ad-hoc, project-by-project basis. However, I have recently asked one of my staff to research the issue more thoroughly so as to produce internal company guidelines on how to address this issue.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished