Major Infrastructure Public or Private Projects are integrated into coherent policies of Sustainable Development. Therefore, provision should be made so as to prevent any alteration or damage of the archaeological and monumental environment. Hence, a vital asset of the Environmental Impact Assessment is the protection of cultural heritage monuments under the national and international law.
However, it has been observed that companies that implement large development projects, due to the lack of knowledge and experience, have difficulties in understanding the requirements of monuments protection, such as: issuing a permit or even conducting a rescue excavation. As a result, there are delays, cost increases, time-consuming bureaucratic inefficiencies, and extended excavation works.
In case of large Private Projects, establishing a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation (MoUC) between the Contractor and the Ministry of Culture and Sports is indispensable and is provided for by law. The Memorandum regulates inter alia the conditions and the way of conducting necessary archaeological surveys during all stages of construction.
Therefore, cooperating with a specialty consultant on archaeological projects, who will support the Contractor at any stage of the Project’s lifetime, is indispensable.