Addendum to the Proposed SR 96 Lighting & Landscaping for the City of Reynolds, Taylor County, Georgia

The proposed Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Project CSHPP-0007-00(606), PI No. 0007606 proposes to construct landscaping, lighting, and pedestrian amenities along the Fall Line Freeway/State Route (SR) 96 within the city limits of Reynolds, Georgia. The project includes construction of entrance signs and landscaping at the edge of the developed downtown of Reynolds, specifically at Horry/Sumter Street west of the city and Lashley Street east of the city. Landscaping, lighting, and pedestrian amenities such as benches and trash receptacles would be constructed within existing right-of-way (ROW) between Horry/Sumter Street and Lashley Street. The City of Reynolds also proposes to replace a number of existing roadway lighting luminaries with modern LED fixtures. No additional ROW would be required for this project. The project length is approximately 1.36 miles.

Project Changes: The plans will be changed to reduce the number of lights proposed in the project from 22 lights to six. These lights will include one each at the proposed monument signs near each of the project termini and one each at the four proposed rest areas within the project. The project footprint will not change and there will be no changes to ROW, easements or buffers.

It should be noted the original 2009 survey conducted by EPEI (Silliman 2009), had incorrectly plotted the survey area. While the project description from both the original 2009 survey and the subsequent reduction and reevaluation of the survey area (Blackwelder 2014), were both correct, the archaeological surveys did not adequately address the entire survey area (Figure 2). Changes made to the proposed project in 2014, however, fell within the 2009 survey area, and were adequately assessed. When the proposed 2015 project changes were determined to be in an area that was not previously surveyed, the error came to light. EPEI, in addressing this inaccuracy, has conducted a Phase I survey of the section of the project that had been inadvertently missed during the initial survey, and the subsequent reevaluation in 2014. The section of the project that was surveyed for this 2015 reevaluation begins on the west side of Reynolds, Georgia at the old intersection of SR 96 and West Talbot Street (it no longer exists) and runs east to the intersection of SR 96 and South Winston Street, for an approximate length of .76 kilometers. The Area of Potential Effect (APE) remains the same from both the 2009 and 2014 surveys, all within existing ROW. In assessing the proposed project plans, there were only two areas of impact for this section of the survey area, two of the four bench/rest areas, both within the existing ROW. There are no other planned impacts from this project to this section of the survey area.