Abstract
ABSTRACTThe Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration are undertaking a long-term, multiphase project to improve and rebuild Interstate 95 (I-95) in Pennsylvania, within the historic city of Philadelphia. Given the complex urban setting, the archaeological subsurface testing for the I-95 Girard Avenue Interchange Improvement Project is being guided by a programmatic agreement under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act. Through data-recovery excavations, the contractor for the project, AECOM, has documented 30 historical-period and Native American archaeological sites. The project includes its own professional journal, live interactive reporting, and a public archaeology center.
Highlights
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration are undertaking a long-term, multiphase project to improve and rebuild Interstate 95 (I-95) in Pennsylvania, within the historic city of Philadelphia
We explore the many innovative ways in which the excitement of archaeological discoveries is being brought to the general public, students, and professionals as part of the regulatory creative-mitigation process
The work in the Girard Avenue Interchange (Section GIR in the project area), which became the focus of the intensive archaeological investigations, involves the improvement of three miles of highway between I-676 and Allegheny Avenue in Philadelphia, including the reconstruction of the Girard Avenue Interchange (Figure 1)
Summary
Avoidance of impacts to NRHP-eligible resources is the preferred result, treatment of these sites includes one of the following outcomes: (1) Phase III mitigation of the site in the form of more fieldwork samples, intensive background research, and detailed laboratory treatment of the material remains, or (2) if the Phase IB–II effort provided enough of a field sample to adequately mitigate the site, detailed laboratory treatment of the material remains and intensive background research Overall, this staged approach by highway section and level of effort ensures that this complex project is being carried out in an efficient and timely fashion. Various historical groups (i.e., neighbors, immigrants, politicians, industrialists) maintained or imposed new technology or exploited new ecological niches, establishing the degree to which change would occur
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