Project Title: 

Cross Tay Link Road | Rubicon Heritage

Location:

Perth, Scotland

Date: 

2019

Client: 

Perth and Kinross Council

Business Sectors: 

Civil Infrastructure

Services (Technical Disciplines):

Archaeological evaluation of the proposed route of the new road including the excavation of machine dug trenches and hand dug test pits and geophysical survey. The Cross Tay Link Road will link the A93, A94 and A9 by way of dual carriageway realignment, a grade separation junction and a new bridge crossing the River Tay and adjacent Railway.

Project Objectives/ Outcomes:

The objective of the project was to determine the presence, extent and significance of any known or unknown archaeology with the footprint of the proposed road scheme.

A total of 476 trial trenches were excavated along the route of the proposed scheme, each measuring 25m by 2m. This confirmed the presence of a probable Iron Age multivallate hillfort with an internal souterrain and a small number of additional finds of Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeology. This provided sufficient information to allow a mitigation strategy to be development in advance of any road construction in order to manage archaeological risk.

In addition, geophysical survey and hand dug test pitting was undertaken within the site of Bertha Roman Fort, a Scheduled Ancient Monument. This confirmed the extent of the archaeology and also the depth of topsoil. This information was required to assist with the design of temporary access routes necessary during construction.

Our Role: 

• Health and Safety Management
• Traffic management
• Landowner liaison
• Liaison with statutory and local authorities
• Archaeological compliance
• Environmental management
• Supply of an ecological clerk of works
• Aerial survey of the route
• Supply of plant and welfare facilities along the route
• Topographic survey
• Archaeological excavation and recording of trenches
• Geophysical survey
• Post-fieldwork analysis
• Preparation of the technical report

Geoscience Ireland Contact:

Colm Moloney (colm.moloney@rubiconheritage.com)