Archaeological Survey of the Proposed Widening of a Portion of Fairburn Road, Fulton County, Georgia

In August 1998 Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. conducted an intensive archeological survey of a 2.2 km (1.4 mi) long corridor for the proposed widening of a portion of Fairburn Road in west-central Fulton County, Georgia. The survey was requested by Fulton County in anticipation of receiving Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) funds for the project. For projects it funds, the DOT requires consideration of potential effects to cultural resources in accordance with Federal highway Administration standards. Standing structures were evaluated in a separate report. Therefore the present survey dealt with only archeological resources. The project consists of the widening of the existing, winding two-lane roadway to a wider road with more gentle curves. Precise plans have not yet been formulated, but all construction (the area of potential effect) will occur in a 37m (120ft) wide right-of-way centered on the existing centerline of Fairburn Road. A large portion of the project area has been heavily disturbed by grading and landscaping associated with several shopping centers, housing developments, and dispersed residential housing that occur on both sides of the road. Combining archival research (mainly the use of old maps and 1938 aerial photographs) with field survey (visual inspection of exposed ground surfaces and shovel testing of obscured ground surfaces) our survey detected no archeological sites in the project area. A previously recorded site that is close to the northern end of the project area, 9FU208, was reported as destroyed when it was recorded in the mid-1970s and does not extend into the present project area. Therefore, since no archeological sites exist in the area of potential effect, the proposed undertaking will have no adverse effects on archeological resources.