2005:1048 - DROGHEDA, Louth

Monitoring of excavations associated with the North East Broadband Project in Drogheda was carried out from January to December 2005. The excavation phase of the project involved the opening of a series of trenches throughout the town centre and its surrounding infrastructure. All of the trenches were located along roads, either in the carriageway proper or the adjoining verge or footpath. There were no river crossings other than at existing bridges. The trenches were 0.6m wide and excavated to a standard depth of 0.9m in carriageways and 0.6m in verges/footpaths. Junction boxes (1.25m2) were excavated where two or more trenches intersected, and at regular intervals along long straight sections. The standard method for opening the trenches was to cut the asphalt road surface with a circular saw and remove the soil using small tracked excavators. All trenches excavated within the zone of potential around the historic town and within the areas of constraint around two recorded monuments (SMR 24:10 and 24:30) were subject to full-time monitoring. All works outside these areas were subject to intermittent monitoring.
Pre-development testing was carried out at Cord Road, Laurence Street/Palace Street, Sunday’s Gate, Rope Walk, Dominick Street, North Quay/Shop Street, James Street/Mary Street, Priest’s Lane and Duleek Street. No archaeological features, finds or deposits were uncovered during testing, but, following a rerouting of the broadband trench down the west side of Palace Street (originally proposed for east side street), the roof of a barrel-vaulted cellar, previously recorded by Donald Murphy (Excavations 1999, No. 575, 99E0173), was uncovered below the existing street surface. Preservation in situ was achieved by covering the exposed stonework with terram sheeting and laying the cable ducts above this level. To the south of the cellar a cobbled surface was uncovered just 0.24m below the existing street level. The surface was composed of medium-sized rounded and angular cobbles. It extended 2.4m and was truncated at either end by existing services. The presence of brick fragments in the underlying deposits indicated that the cobbled surface was post-medieval or later.