AECOM Technical Services, Inc. (AECOM) has completed a Phase I addendum archaeological survey in advance of proposed improvements to State Route (SR) 20 from 0.19 miles (mi) south of County Road (CR) 118/Tuck Road to County Street (CS) 507/Covington Street in Walton County, Georgia for GDOT Project PI 0016387. Along SR 20, the existing two-lane section will be widened to a four-lane section with a raised median that varies in width between 20 feet (ft) and 24 ft. Tuck Road and Sharon Church Road will be realigned to intersect SR 20 with a multi-lane roundabout. The project length is approximately 1.3 mi. This project was originally part of GDOT Project No. STP00-2584-00(009), PI No. 142000, which proposed improvements to SR 20 in Walton County, GA.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is issuing a Section 404 permit for a portion of the project because the proposed improvements will impact Waters of the United States (WOTUS). The USACE Area of Potential Effects (APE) is defined as the impacted waters within the proposed road work project limits and a 100-meter buffer around those waters. The resulting area is two discontinuous sections of USACE APE. The western APE section is 6 acres and the eastern APE section is 16.7 acres, with the entire APE totaling 22.7 acres.
The current survey resulted in the identification of one newly recorded archaeological site and one isolated find within the USACE APE. Site 9WN179 is a sparse nineteenth to twentieth century domestic artifact scatter that has a partially undefined boundary and unknown NRHP eligibility. Isolated find (IF) 1 is a single quartzite flake. The IF, by its nature, is ineligible for the NRHP. AECOM recommends total avoidance of the unknown portion of 9WN179. Site 9WN179 will require the establishment of an Environmentally Sensitive Area marked with orange barrier fence. No further work is recommended for IF 1.
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