Strategies for reducing construction problems on archaeological sites

Construction and Archaeology are two disciplines that are not often content with one another. At the same time, historically speaking, construction operations have resulted in the discovery of many important cultural artifacts, and the recently increasing desire to preserve those materials has resulted in many protective regulations. With the growth in population, urban sprawl, and tourism, the demand for construction is also growing. This will increase the probability of archaeological encounters during construction operations. This research study will focus on the preconstruction phase of a project with an emphasis on the owners responsibility to proactively anticipate preservation-related issues for a specific project rather than reacting to such issues when they happen. The study’s goals and objectives are to evaluate preservation-related preconstruction considerations, developing strategies that affect the project specifications, and to devise alternative strategies for reducing construction problems in conjunction with archaeological constraints. Additional expenses associated with the strategies will be assessed as to the value they contribute to problem avoidance. Relevant case studies will be developed and examined that identify typical problems associated with archaeological encounters, document the challenges to construction practices with archaeological constraints and to appraise the methods by which the encounter problems have been resolved. Much of the intent of this study is to reveal any weakness in the preconstruction process with specific focus on historic and archaeological encounter avoidance planning. With the causes revealed, strategies can then be developed to reduce the problems during the construction project. Even at the early stages of the research, it is clear that focus on several factors need to be present prior to commencement of construction activities in order to reduce problems associated with archaeological encounters.