On 20th November, Euan McNeill, Jack Russell and Peta Knott from WA’s Coastal & Marine team were in Brussels at the PIANC workshop Dredging and Port Construction: Interactions with features of Archaeological or Heritage Interest. The workshop was chaired by Chris Pater, Head of Marine Planning at English Heritage and Jan Brooke, as a representative of PIANC UK on the EnviCon working group, was the workshop organiser. As Technical Coordinator of this international workshop, Euan sourced presentations from Belgium, South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland and Norway. Jack presented on WA’s Southampton Approach Dredging Project and Peta presented on the Channel Deepening Project that took place in her former home country of Australia.
Case studies involving archaeological works in relation to port and inter-harbour developments were presented to an audience of archaeologists, geologists, biologists, heritage practitioners, port managers, and dredging company representatives. Each presentation highlighted whether protective heritage legislation had to be observed and whether this was done correctly, the mitigation measures used, what went right and what lessons can be learned from each case. The delegates were also treated to some interesting archaeological finds such as a surprisingly intact 19th century shipwreck in Cape Town, a rare and fairly complete example of an early navigation light in Australia and prehistoric remains in the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The delegates then broke into three groups and held discussions on best practice for scoping, methodologies and mitigations methods for heritage in port and harbour developments. There was a general consensus that heritage issues should be considered at the earliest levels of port and dredging developments to avoid nasty surprises half way through the process. Another idea that came out of the workshop was to encourage a change in attitude of all personnel involved in developments that heritage should be an issue but not a problem and is an area where considerable community benefit and public goodwill can be derived.
Now the task is to collate all the ideas raised at the workshop and incorporate them into a succinct document with example case studies to illustrate a range of best practice in heritage management in port and harbour developments. This guidance document should be available through PIANC in the coming year.
