Archeological Survey of Proposed Improvements to the Intersection of U.S. 29 and Pleasant Hill Road, Gwinnett County, Georgia

Gwinnett County is proposing to improve the intersection of U.S. 29 (Lawrenceville Highway) and Pleasant Hill/Lester Road near the community of Luxomni in southwest Gwinnett County. Improvements will include new raised medians, the addition or construction of turn lanes, and sidewalks, reconfigured entrances to businesses and one new entrance road to an apartment complex. Almost all of the improvements will occur within existing right-of-way. Some of the business entrances and the intersection itself will require very small amounts of new right-of-way (on the order of 1 to 2 m) angling across the intersection. The improvements, and thus the area of potential effect, extend for various lengths along the four axes of the intersection as follows: 500 m (1640 ft) north along Pleasant Hill Road, 170 m 558 ft) south along Lester Road, 630 m (2067 ft) west along U.S. 29 and 870 m (2854 ft) east along U.S. 29. The project area has been heavily developed and the roads are lined with fast-food restaurants, supermarkets, shopping centers, other businesses and asphalt parking lots. The project may use federal highway funds (Transportation Equity Act), and thus an archeological survey was required to ensure that significant sites (i.e., those eligible to the National Register of Historic Places) are not adversely affected. Archival research showed that no recorded archeological sites lie within or close to the project corridor. The project area was archeologically surveyed on July 17, 2002. Almost all of the project area has been disturbed by road construction and subsequent development. The only relatively undisturbed parcel in the project area, a narrow strip of wooded ridge crest that will be cut through for a new entranceway, contained the remnant of a late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century house site that we recorded as site 9GW544. This site has been heavily disturbed by grading on its eastern and western flanks, and only a 20 m wide strip, containing a bored well and collapsed well house, remains. Because most of the site, including the actual house location, has been destroyed, we recommend that site 9GW544 is not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. We conclude that the project will have no adverse effects to significant archeological resources.