Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Radu Berceanu has initiated a draft order establishing the Autostrada (Motorway) National Archaeological Research Programme as a priority project of national interest, the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry reports.
The order seeks to solve rapidly the issues related to the protection of the archeological heritage when big road infrastructure projects, namely motorways, are involved. The programme is designed to protect and capitalise on the archaeological heritage affected and to be affected by the road infrastructure projects in 2010-2020 through research of the heritage, complex capitalisation and the publication in full of the research findings.
The Bucharest-based National Museum of Romania‘s History together with the National Motorways and Roads Corporation will provide management coordination for the programme. The National History Museum will appoint a general coordinator and a deputy coordinator for the programme.
The National Preventive Archaeological Research Programme is said to be built on the existing national and European legislative framework and also to consider some aspects of the theory and practice of preventive archaeological investigation (including archeological data archives established after large-scale diggings) adjusted for the current situation in Romania generated by the implementation of road infrastructure projects in 2010-2020.