County: Westmeath Site name: Pearse Street, Athlone
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0430
Author: Declan Moore, Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd, Corporate House, Ballybrit Business Park, Ballybrit, Galway.
Site type: Monitoring
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 603651m, N 741387m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.422588, -7.945069
Monitoring was carried out in the vicinity of the revenue commissioners’ building off Pearse Street, Athlone, Co. Westmeath, and along Pearse Street. The works involved the installation of a proposed gas main extension along Pearse Street (c. 77m of 125mm-diameter pipe) and a site main/service pipe on the revenue commissioners’ property (c. 200m of 90mm-diameter pipe). The pipe was laid by open-cut trenching with a maximum trench depth of 1m.
Monitoring of groundworks for the gas pipe installation took place in November 2010 along Pearse Street. To minimise traffic disruption the majority of the works were carried out at night under fluorescent light. The trench depth was generally between 0.8m and 0.9m. The stratigraphic profile recorded consisted of tarmac and hardcore infill, 0–0.2m in depth. Below this was a yellow clay mixed with numerous red-brick fragments and small stones. This profile was generally uniform throughout but was interrupted frequently by a complex of modern services, including water and sewerage mains, as well as a number of smaller domestic connections. Nothing of archaeological significance was recorded.
