TII Cultural Heritage Guidelines Project

Objective

The Cultural Heritage Guidance and Standard will set out the expected requirements for undertaking Cultural Heritage Impact Assessments (CHIA) and the production and delivery of the Cultural Heritage outputs for inclusion with Option Selection Reports, Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIAR’s) and/or Environmental Reports (ER’s) for TII Projects.

Key deliverable – Overarching guidance and standards regulating assessment of the impacts on the Cultural Heritage of projects funded by or carried out under the auspices of TII.​

The purpose of this Guidance and Standard is to:

  • Outline the application of CHIA during the planning, assessment, and design stages for proposed TII Projects.
  • Outline the review process of the application and implementation of CHIA to ensure appropriate evaluation and analysis of the baseline (or receiving Cultural Heritage environment) within which a Project is being planned.
  • Apply CHIA in a manner that is proportionate to the complexity and scale of a Project and the likely significance of its Cultural Heritage effects.
  • Provide consistency to the consideration of CHIA during the planning, selection, design, assessment, and delivery phases of a Project as set out in TII’s Project Management Guidelines (PMG), Project Manager’s Manuals (PMM) and Project Appraisal Guidelines (PAG).
  • Assist proposed Projects to achieve their Cultural Heritage objectives in line with legislative requirements and government policy, including enhancement of the Cultural Heritage environment and experience of the road user where possible.

The Guidance and Standard are being developed by Archaeological Management Solutions Ltd (AMS) on behalf of TII based on a literature review, extensive consultation and analysis of best practice outside Ireland.

Progress Updates:

  • AMS submitted a first draft of the Guidance to TII in February 2021.
  • AMS submitted a second draft of the Guidance and a draft Standard to TII in early July 2021. This draft is based on feedback received from TII and on a series of workshops with TII’s Archaeology and Heritage Team. Draft 2 also reflects input from the project’s Stakeholder Advisory Group, external specialists, and other stakeholders.
  • A Peer Review of the revised draft Guidance was completed by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and Arup consulting engineers in early September 2021.
  • The draft Guidance and Standard was revised based on feedback from TII and the Peer Reviewers and on an additional workshop with TII’s Archaeology and Heritage Team.
  • The revised draft was made available to the Stakeholder Advisory Group and other external stakeholders for review on 22nd October 2021.
  • A meeting of the Stakeholder Advisory Group took place on 2 November 2021 to discuss the draft Guidance document.
  • Stakeholders were given the opportunity to submit their feedback in writing using a feedback form provided. Responses were received over a 30-day period, ending 22 November 2021.
  • Based on the external stakeholder feedback, an updated draft was prepared. This draft, version 3.1, was open for Public Consultation from the 21st January to 21st February 2022.
  • Following the Public Consultation, the Guidance and Standards documents were revised based on feedback received from specialists and stakeholders. A request for a Practitioners’ Workshop was also made by the industry to review and discuss the drafts (see below).
  • Draft 4.0 of the Guidance and Standards were submitted to TII on 15 and 25 March 2022 respectively.
  • AMS gave a virtual presentation on the new Guidance and Standards to the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI) annual conference in Belfast on 1 April 2022.
  • A Practitioners’ Workshop was held on 19 May 2022 using Microsoft Teams. The main purpose of the workshop was to get feedback from Cultural Heritage Professionals on the current drafts and their key requirements. In total, 28 practitioners from 16 organisations participated, alongside representatives of AMS and TII. The workshop generated a constructive discussion with lots of useful feedback and suggestions which were then considered by TII.
  • Draft 5.0 of the Guidance and Standards were produced incorporating agreed actions from the Practitioners’ Workshop and additional input from external specialists. Draft 5.0 was submitted to TII on 5 August 2022.
  • In September 2022, TII circulated Draft 5.0 of the Guidance and Standards to National Roads Design Offices (NRDOs) around the country for their information.
  • On 22 September 2022, AMS delivered a presentation on the new Guidance and Standards at the TII Roads and Greenways Conference in Sligo.
  • In December 2022, TII requested AMS to carry out a non-legal review of the Historic and Archaeological Heritage Bill 2023 and assess its implications for the draft Guidelines. The final report on this review was submitted in July 2023.
  • On 25 March 2023, AMS gave a presentation on the new Guidance and Standards to the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI) annual conference in Dublin.

Next Steps:

  • AMS are now preparing the final draft of the Guidance document based on TII feedback on Draft 5.0 and the review of the Historic and Archaeological Heritage Bill 2023. This will involve aligning the Guidelines with TII’s new Project Management Guidelines (PMG) and Project Manager’s Manuals (PMM) for National Road Projects which were published in May 2023.
  • Following a full copyedit, it is hoped that the final Guidelines will be approved by TII management and published sometime in 2023. The Standards document will follow.
  • AMS will be giving a presentation on the new Guidance and Standards at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) conference in Belfast which runs from 30 August to 2 September 2023.