The €300 million Waterford city bypass may have to be rerouted after the discovery of a major Viking settlement in excavations, writes Joe Humphreys.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has ordered a report on the matter amid calls from conservationists for the roadworks to cease pending a detailed archaeological examination of the site.
Dr David Edwards, of the newly-formed Academy for Heritage, said it would be "a much better use of public funds" to reroute the bypass than hold the project up for two-to-three years to allow for an excavation.
Echoing this view, Dr Mark Clinton, a member of An Taisce's monuments' committee, said the National Roads Authority (NRA) had only two options, "either they launch a major excavation or they move the road".
Dr Clinton, a former site director of the Carrickmines Castle archaeological excavations in south Dublin, also criticised the NRA for not being more alert to the possibility of the find.
"We have always known about Viking activity in this area, and a site fitting this description on the banks of the Suir is well documented," he said. "How then they decided to build the road right through the area is amazing."
A NRA spokesman denied any suggestion that it had prior knowledge of the site, saying it had fully complied with official guidelines on archaeological protection.
"The Department is reviewing the situation, and we will have to see what flows from that. But from the NRA's point of view we have moved ahead with the tender process. I won't say we have crossed the Rubicon but we are in the final building stages."
While he declined to rule out the possibility of a rerouting, he said "it would be difficult to come up with a viable alternative".
It is understood an excavation could add at least one year to the construction time and an extra €40 million to the cost of the project, including millions in compensation to contractors.
A spokesman for Mr Cullen, in whose constituency the bypass runs, said: "He is aware of the broad outline of the situation, and will ask his officials to prepare a report on the options available."
Dr Edwards said the Academy for Heritage awaited Mr Cullen's response as it was "a real test case for his stance on heritage, with which many of us have not been happy up to this point".
Historian Prof Roy Foster has warned that Ireland's historical environment was being destroyed by unregulated developments.
"Most of us own cars and drive, and we all want better roads. But we also want better planning. If we put our heads together there is no reason why we can't have both," said Dr Edwards, a historian at University College Cork.
Prof Donnchadh Ó Corráin, UCC, said the Waterford bypass could be accommodated without destroying the Viking settlement by rerouting the road about 100 metres from the river to an area on the same elevation. He described the works at the site as "horrific", claiming "they have just been skimming off top soil with a JCB and then using a metal detector to find items".
The N25 bypass has already been held up by a series of planning obstacles and legal challenges. Its price tag has almost doubled since 2000, when its estimated cost was €179 million.
Dr Edwards said the situation had echoes of the Carrickmines Castle debacle, claiming the NRA had gone ahead with the works without proper consultation. "They don't ask independent experts. If you are going to plan a road through a Viking settlement - if you are being serious about it - you would ask someone like Donnchadh. Instead, we seem to get corporate affairs spokesmen making decisions."