Archeological Survey of the Valdosta to Moultrie Portion of SR 13 3, Brooks and Colquitt Counties, Georgia

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) wishes to widen from two to four lanes the portion of State Route 133 from northwest of Valdosta to the outskirts of Moultrie, in Brooks and Colquitt Counties, a distance of 34.23 miles (55.1 km). As part of the design/study team, Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. (SAS) conducted a Phase I archeological survey of the proposed area of potential effect for the preferred alternative in 2005. The area of potential effect for the 2005 survey was a corridor along the entire project length that extended 41 m (134 ft) from the existing centerline of SR 133. The 2005 survey located and recorded 42 archeological sites, the vast majority of which were late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century house and farmstead sites. All were recommended as not eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

In December of 2010 project engineers determined that many rights-of-way and easements needed for sediment basins, driveway improvements, and intersections extended more than 41 m (134 ft) from the existing centerline, and thus were not part of the APE surveyed in 2005. In consultation with GDOT archeologists, it was established that a zone extending 15 m beyond the original survey corridor (half the distance of a 30-m shovel test interval) could be considered as having been surveyed. To ensure full archeological survey of the entire revised APE, SAS returned to the field in January 2011 to survey those areas of new easement and right-of-way that were not surveyed during the 2005 work. The results of this additional work were presented in an addendum report that was produced in late January 2011. No new sites were recorded in the 56 parcels.

In 2012 the project design had been finalized and it was noted that there were now some new, generally small, parcels that extended beyond the original 2005 survey corridor and that had not been surveyed in 2011. In October, 2012 SAS identified and archeologically surveyed all 37 of these parcels. This report presents the results of the 2012 survey of additional parcels, which encountered no sites (Table 1). Thus, the project as currently designed will have no effects to archeological resources eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.