The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has proposed a project to widen US 80/SR 26 from just west of Bull River to just east of Lazaretto Creek in Chatham County, Georgia. The proposed project will widen the existing roadway to four lanes, widen the existing bridges and construct two additional bridges over Bull River and Lazaretto Creek. In order to identify potentially significant cultural resources in the project area, GDOT contracted with Tidewater Atlantic Research, Inc. (TAR) of Washington, North Carolina to conduct a pedestrian and submerged remote sensing survey of those areas to be impacted by projected related activities. That survey was conducted in June 1999 and revealed no cultural resources within the study area. In 2000, GDOT issued a modification of the right-of-way in selected portions of the US 80 / SR 26 project area. In order to identify potentially significant cultural resources in the extended project area, GDOT contracted again with TAR to conduct a pedestrian and terrestrial magnetometer survey of those modified areas to be impacted by construction activities. The work performed consisted of a background literature review, a magnetic and pedestrian archaeological survey of the tidal marsh and a pedestrian archaeological survey of a relic land surface east of Lazaretto Creek. Fieldwork activities were conducted on 12 April 2001. The pedestrian and remote sensing survey of the tidal marsh between the two crossings revealed no cultural resources within the modified sections of the project area. The survey of the east bank of Lazaretto Creek on the north side of the road way revealed that the modified right-of-way is located in an area that has been highly impacted by past road improvements and other construction activities and contains no intact cultural resources. As a consequence of these results, no further investigation is recommended for the proposed project.
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