Tywi Gateway Project Archaeological Services Tender

Descriptions

BackgroundBishop’s Park at Abergwili is of special importance to the cultural, historic and natural heritage of Wales. The Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, working with Carmarthenshire County Council, has been awarded a development grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Parks for People’ programme and our aim is to create the Tywi Gateway there, an all-year destination with restored and reinvigorated pleasure grounds, walled kitchen garden, a flood-plain meadow and ox-bow lake.The Trust has employed consultants to prepare the conservation management plan and supporting documentation to support a Round 2 application in July 2016.RequirementTenders are sought from contractors prepared to provide archaeological survey data for the conservation management plan to support an application for a delivery grant in July 2016.Capabilities•Experience of establishing and leading archaeological survey, excavation, recording and reporting to IFA, Cadw and Heritage Lottery Fund standards•Experience of working with a mixed discipline project team•Experience of coordinating and managing a series of archaeological tasks involving professional staff, volunteers, community groups, and the media•Experience of archaeological analysis of historic gardens•Experience of environmental sampling and analysis•A good record of full reporting of projects.Scope of WorkGiven that field survey of the wider historic landscape has already been undertaken the work will entail:•Archaeological excavation, recording and reporting on targeted investigations of garden buildings, the walled garden, park paths and Bishop’s Pond•An archaeological topographic survey of the designed landscape to the specification at Annex A•Archaeological trenching, test pits and recording of sample path and drive widths, and other features subject to repair, restoration and conservation proposals•Coordination and supervision of own staff, community and training volunteers•Maximising the education and training benefits of the work including involvement of the local community and school in the activities•Advising on options for detail archaeological mitigation works, input to the detail design process, to give advice on watching briefs and future works•Liaising extensively with other project team members.Annex AArchaeological Topographic Survey SpecificationFeatures to be surveyed•footprints of buildings•structures, including temporary structures•fences, walls, gates, piers, abutments•driveways and paths•other hard landscape features•banks and ditches•planting beds and other areas of smaller vegetation•services (above ground and visible indications of underground services)•statutory authorities’ plant and service covers where visible•changes of surface•isolated trees/wooded areas/limits of vegetation.TreesTrees are to be plotted individually to show trunk bases, and canopy/spread. Trees are considered to be individuals if they are have a bole diameter of 40 cm or more at breast height or are considered otherwise significant such as the apple trees in the walled garden. Canopy extent should indicate the collective canopy envelope for trees in groups and woodlands. Individual canopy extent should be surveyed and plotted for isolated trees.Trees are to be annotated with the following information:•the girth•the tree number where visible•species by common name•height to the nearest 0.5mHeightsSpot heights to be shown at salient points. Contours at 0.25m intervals.ProductThe final agreed work is to be supplied on CD disk as a series of MapInfo Tables – see below for suggested tables and table structure. Tables should also be presented in a DXF or a suitable AutoCAD.DWG file format. Two paper sets of the survey should be provided, with plans covering the whole survey area as follows:1. Whole project site, on one A1 size plan2. Whole project site, on one A3 size plan3. Whole survey printed at 1:200 scale on multiple A1 sheets4. Item 3 above, but printed on multiple A3 sheetsA corresponding set of pdf files/jpeg should also be provided. Graphics, text and labels must be legible at all sizes of plan produced.MapInfo TablesThe following tables are suggested (there may be additional tables):Survey Top of SlopeSurvey Bottom of SlopeSurvey WallSurvey PathSurvey TreeSurvey Tree CanopySurvey StumpSurvey 1m ContourSurvey 0.25m ContourSurvey Spot HeightSurvey MiscSurvey WatercourseSurvey PondSurvey RubbleSurvey StepSurvey UndergroundSurvey Rock outcropSurvey Survey StationThe structure of each table will be:Table (character 50)Description (character 100Source (Character 150)Created By (Character 15)Created On (Date)Last Edit (Date)Positional Accuracy (Character 15)Data Capture Process (Character 15)Data Capture Scale (Character 15)In addition contour and spot height tables will have height fields; the survey station table will have XYZ fields; and the survey tree table will have species, tree number and height fields.NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at http://www.sell2wales.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=31549.