M74 Completion, Glasgow

Under the HAPCA name, joint contractors Headland with Pre-Construct Archaeology successfully completed one of the largest ever archaeological projects in the UK. With a contract value of over £5m, the programme investigated a series of industrial sites along the 5 Km route of the new road around the south side of Glasgow.

Phase 1 comprised a programme of Historic Building Recording of 12 industrial sites along the route of the new motorway

Phase 2 was a 9 month programme of archaeological works and comprised a programme of evaluation and subsequent excavation of several very large-scale open-area excavations including

The Govan Ironworks - The Govan Ironworks were established in the 1830s for the manufacture of bar iron and the production of iron castings for steam engines and general engineering products. The excavation area for the foundry comprised 13,000 square metres, and in addition the workers' housing block, known as the 'Lower English Buildings' consisted of a further 7,500 square metres. These huge excavations areas were surveyed and planned entirely digitally.

The Caledonian Pottery Works - The archaeological excavation of the late 19th century Caledonian Pottery Works, Rutherglen comprised open-area excavation of the factory buildings and trenching through the pottery spoil heaps. The open-area excavation comprised over 9,000 square metres and the pottery spoil heap trenches were a further 3,600 square metres. Here also, the use of purely digital surveying and planning was the only practical way of recording such a vast area of archaeology.

The projects were completed, on schedule, after a 9 month period with up to 100 staff.