RC114 SeptOct 2024 - Magazine - Page 32
SITE ASSESSMENT
Every time a new infrastructure project is announced, there
are many stages before shovels hit the ground. An important
stage in this process is an archaeological assessment.
PRESERVING THE PAST
NTARIO IS CONSTANTLY GROWING. And as Canada’s most
populated province swells in population, additional infrastructure is needed—new schools,
hospitals, roads, wastewater systems, the list goes
on and on. Every time a new infrastructure project is announced, there are many stages before
shovels hit the ground. An important stage in this process
is an archaeological assessment. But what exactly does that
entail?
To learn more about the archaeological assessment process, Renew Canada reached out to Archaeological Services
Inc. (ASI), an Ontario-based consulting services company
specializing in cultural heritage conservation, planning
and management for the past 40 years.
“It’s one of the requirements for our clients as part of
the Environmental Assessment Act, to do the archaeology
and cultural heritage assessments,” explains Lisa Merritt,
partner at ASI and director of the Environmental Assessment Division.
Consultant archaeologists working on these assessments must follow a set of standards and guidelines that
is regulated by the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.
“They regulate our licenses. I’m a professional archeologist, and I have a license under the Ontario Heritage Act,
which is our overarching piece of legislation that regulates archeology in the province, and the Standards and
Guidelines for Consultant Archeologists set out under the
Ontario Heritage Act regulate and standardize our work,
and tell us what our requirements are,” Merritt explains.
O
Andrew Snook is a
freelance business-tobusiness writer based in
Mississauga, Ont.
32
A four-stage process
Archaeological assessments for infrastructure projects
follow a four-stage process. The 昀椀rst stage begins with
background research and property inspections. Stage 1 is
about evaluating the archeological potential of a project.
Because Merritt’s team focuses speci昀椀cally on infrastructure projects, many of their assessments never go beyond
the initial stage.
RENEW CANADA – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024
When assessing a property, ASI will
inspect the property 昀椀rsthand, as well
as going through historical records
and as-builts drawings.
“A lot of the time our work doesn’t
go past a Stage 1, because when we’re
working on infrastructure, it’s often
in already highly disturbed contexts.
It’s either been previously assessed or
it is an upgrade or change to existing
facilities that have already removed
any archaeology that may have been
there. It’s in a rail corridor or an existing water sewage treatment plant, an
existing hydro corridor or an existing
road,” Merritt explains.
However, if the initial research does show potential,
then Merritt’s team will proceed to Stage 2. This stage involves in-昀椀eld, hand excavation of resources. One example
of an infrastructure project where this can occur is a road
widening.
“If they’re widening, sometimes there will be strips
of land on either side that will have potential,” Merritt
explains. “Road widenings are very common projects that
we work on where we 昀椀nd archeological sites, because
often these roads were based on narrower historical roads,
and then as they widen, they start to impact historical sites
that were located along the frontages.”
If the land on either side of the road widening project
could potentially be undisturbed, the archaeologists will
perform a test survey to see if they can 昀椀nd any original
soils that may incorporate archaeological deposits that
haven’t been impacted.
“If it has potential, and it’s a farm 昀椀eld or just an
abandoned lot, we do a test pit survey. We have crews
out there that dig test pits at 昀椀ve-metre intervals that are a
minimum of 30 centimetres wide and 30 centimetres deep,
and they screen the soil, looking for artifacts. That’s how
we 昀椀nd our sites,” Merritt explains.
RENEWCANADA.NET
ASI
The process of conducting archaeological
assessments for infrastructure projects by Andrew Snook
