263B.5  State department of transportation contracts.
  1.  The state department of transportation in letting contracts for road construction shall take action to see that historical objects will not be needlessly destroyed or if such destruction cannot be avoided reasonable action shall be taken to obtain all information concerning such objects prior to destruction. If it should appear that the proposed construction will result in the destruction of historical objects and it is determined by the appropriate authority that such objects cannot be reasonably removed or otherwise preserved, consideration shall be given to possible alternate locations of the highway.
  2.  If during the course of construction, historical objects are encountered, the appropriate authority shall be notified immediately and steps taken to excavate and preserve the objects if practicable or if preservation is impracticable, to permit the appropriate authority to obtain and record data relative thereto.
  3.  Agreements may be entered into with the appropriate authority to pay from federal highway funds the reasonable cost of salvage work. Extra work orders may be issued to the contractor where necessary and extra work orders may be issued in cases within the meaning of “subsurface or lateral conditions” or “unknown physical conditions” where such terms are used in the standard contract forms. Payment for salvage work shall be limited to that performed within the roadway prism and any location designated as a source of material. If the contractor’s operations are delayed because of salvage work such contractor shall be entitled to an appropriate extension of the contract time. If practicable, the operations shall be rescheduled to avoid the section where the historical material is, until the removal of it.
  4.  The cost of exploratory work prior to construction shall be borne by the appropriate authority. Costs of excavation of historical objects or recordation of data may be paid by the federal highway funds. Excavation costs may include costs of protecting and preservation during removal from the site but shall not include the expense of shipping historical objects from the site.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §305A.5]
C93, §263B.5

Section not amended; editorial change applied