Archaeological services

Tender description

Transport Scotland seeks to undertake a public procurement competition for the provision of invasive archaeological investigations on the A9 Glen Garry to Dalwhinnie and A9 Dalwhinnie to Crubenmore projects, comprising archaeological trial trenching, small-scale archaeological excavation and post-excavation assessment, analysis, reporting and archiving. Transport Scotland is an agency of the Scottish Government and contracts in the name of and on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. Transport Scotland will conduct the proposed procurement process on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. Invasive archaeological investigations may comprise: — management of and co-ordination with, any other specialist subcontractors appointed by the Supplier, as required; — preparation of health and safety risk assessments and reports for all services to be carried out on each site of interest; — liaison and compliance with the directions of Transport Scotland, the relevant engineering consultant(s) and the relevant local authority archaeologist; — preparation and submission of progress reports (frequency to be agreed with the project management team and Supplier); — preparation of summary reports during the invasive archaeological investigations; — archaeological trial trenching by machine (or by hand where specified) and subsequent evaluation and hand excavation; — undertaking small-scale archaeological excavation(s) at relevant sites, where instructed; — seeking all necessary permissions prior to any work being undertaken; — undertaking of post-excavation assessment, analysis and reporting on the results of the invasive archaeological investigation; — publication at a level of detail appropriate to the significance of the results is required as well as ensuring submission of a summary of the works undertaken to the Archaeology Scotland publication Discovery and Excavation Scotland; — dissemination of the results through deposition of an ordered archive at the National Record of the Historic Environment, OASIS and the deposition of a detailed report at Transport Scotland and local authorities’ offices; and — liaison and compliance with the directions of Transport Scotland, their technical advisor and the relevant local authority archaeologist.