The National Roads Authority is preparing contingency plans to radically alter the proposed Waterford bypass route to avoid a major Viking site at Woodstown, writes Liam Reid
A decision on the future of the site is expected to be made by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, after he receives a detailed archaeological report on the site, believed to be one of the most important Viking settlement remains discovered in Ireland.
The Minister can decide that the road could be allowed through the site, with it being preserved "by record" similar to the situation at Carrickmines.
Alternatively he can order that the site be fully preserved, meaning that the new roadway will have to be changed.
While no decision can be made until the final report is completed, the latter option is looking increasingly likely after an interim report found the site to be of even greater significance than previously thought.
Further tests have discovered that the site affected by the proposed roadway is nearly 20 per cent larger than first believed.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Mr Roche confirmed that the Department of the Environment received an interim archaeological report on the site earlier this month, and a final report was expected within three weeks. Mr Roche would be making a decision almost immediately on receiving the report, he said.
The Irish Times understands that the NRA is now drawing up contingency plans to re-route the road around the Woodstown site, if requested by the Minister.
However, senior officials at the authority believe that this may not delay the construction of the €200 million road, and that it could still get underway next year.
Under new powers in the National Monuments Act, work could proceed on other parts of the roads development while an alternative route around the Woodstown site is identified. Planning approval, including environmental impact and archaeological assessments may also be required for the new section.
"If we have to reroute, it wouldn't be the end of the world for us," according to an NRA official.
The legislation, which was used to restart work at Carrickmines Castle in August, has been criticised by conservationists as providing too much power to the Minister for the Environment.
The Woodstown site is now the focus of a major environmental campaign to reroute the Waterford bypass. Upwards of 3,000 artefacts have already been excavated from the site on the banks of the Suir, which is now believed to have been a town of up to 4,000 inhabitants.
It has been described by Prof Donnchadh Ó Corrain of the department of history at University College Cork as "the most significant new find in Viking studies in perhaps a century".
Archaeologists commissioned by the NRA have also described Woodstown as one of the most important Viking sites in Europe.