Phase I Archaeological Survey of the SR 378/ Beaver Ruin Road Corridor, Gwinnett County, Georgia

This is a GDOT Archaeological Report Short Form for Negative Findings conducted in October of 2005 for the Phase I Archaeological Survey of the SR 378/ Beaver Ruin Road Corridor, Gwinnett County, Georgia. This study is a Phase I survey of the impact area for proposed improvements to the SR 378/ Beaver Ruin Road corridor in Gwinnett County between its intersections with Buford Highway (SR 13/US 23) and Lawrenceville Highway (SR 8/US 29). Improvements include installation of fiber interconnect and CCTV cameras. The APE includes a 6.45 mile corridor along the existing Beaver Ruin Road. The corridor includes 20 feet of corridor on both sides of the pavement edge. The project corridor stretches from the intersection of Buford Highway (SR 13/US 23) and Lawrenceville Highway (SR 8/US 29). The corridor is heavily developed. Land use includes shopping centers, paved parking and driveways, landscaped lawns with buried utilities, apartment developments, new construction clearcuts, and wetland areas. The APE is limited to areas within 20 feet of the existing pavement. As such, the entire corridor has been disturbed by installation of utilities, road construction, sidewalk construction and other development. Only five areas looked to have adequate conditions for intact soils. Upon pedestrian inspection each of these areas was determined to be disturbed as well, two areas were manually modified, two were low and wet, and the last was situated within a sewer line. The entire corridor length was driven to identify areas within the APE with the likelihood of containing intact soils. As the corridor was limited to the road berm and heavily disturbed a standard 30-meter interval was not employed. The corridor was driven in each direction and notes were taken detailing mileage from either end of the APE, intersecting roads, land use, and potential for intact soils. Each area of potential was closely inspected by the survey crew. No viable shovel test locations were identified within the APE.