Transportation Projects
Arizona Department of Transportation Highway Projects
Types of Services:
Survey, evaluation, and data recovery
Client and Contact Information:
Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) Environmental Planning Group
205 S. 17th Ave., Rm. 213E, MD 619E
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Approximate cost:
$10 million
 A pair of pit houses at Mescal Wash. |
Beginning in 1990 and continuing today, SRI has carried out six major archaeological projects for ADOT:
- The Lee Canyon Archaeological Project (along State Route 64 near the Grand Canyon) (1990–1992). Report: Archaeological Investigations at Lee Canyon: Kayenta Ansazi Farmsteads in the Upper Basin, Coconino County, Arizona. Technical Series 38 (1992).
- The State Route 87–Sycamore Creek Project (along State Route 87 north of Phoenix) (1995–2005). Report: From the Desert to the Mountains: Archaeology of the Transition Zone: The State Route 87–Sycamore Creek Project. 4 vols. (vol. 3 in press). Technical Series 73.
- The Lower Oak Creek Archaeological Project (along State Route 89A near Sedona) (1998–ongoing). Report: in progress.
- The Upper Cottonwood Creek Project (along State Route 188 in east-central Arizona) (1999–2005). Report: The State Route 188–Cottonwood Creek Project. 3 vols. (all in draft). Technical Series 78.
- The Mescal Wash Archaeological Project (along Interstate 10 in southern Arizona) (2000–ongoing). Report: in progress.
- The Apache Junction to Superior Project (along U.S. 60) (2002–ongoing). Report: 5 volumes in progress.
- Additionally, SRI has performed on-call survey and monitoring within construction corridors.
Combined, these projects have involved testing and data recovery at more than 60 prehistoric and historical-period sites, ranging from artifact scatters to multicomponent village sites and historical-period roads.
In conducting these projects, SRI has been required to handle the logistics and management requirements of large, complex archaeological projects. ADOT projects typically must meet very tight schedules and often require intense coordination and consultation with federal, state, and local agencies, along with many Native American groups. Safety is a paramount concern along heavily traveled highways. Each ADOT project has involved many subcontractors and specialists in addition to in-house staff, necessitating the management of schedules and budgets over several years and the coordination of multiple tasks. SRI has tailored administrative and management positions and resources to address these crucial needs.
Most recently, SRI has provided ADOT with cultural resource management services along U.S. 60 between Florence Junction and Superior. SRI investigated 13 prehistoric sites and 6 historical-period sites along U.S. 60. The prehistoric sites included a large and unusual nonriverine Cienega (800 B.C.—A.D.1) and Red Mountain phase (A.D. 1—400) settlement, along with habitation sites representing Late Archaic, Hohokam, and Salado occupation of the region from 900 B.C. to A.D. 1450. Overall, the project resulted in the excavation of more than 750 aboriginal features. The project is currently in the analysis and writing stage and has involved close coordination ADOT, Tonto National Forest, the Arizona State Land Department, the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, and the Gila River Indian Community.
Large transportation-related projects require innovative approaches to archaeological research. Project areas tend to be long, linear corridors. A common failure of these projects is that they focus exclusively on the right-of-way; site-specific questions are the only type of research pursued. SRI has countered this trend by placing sites in a regional framework. Comparative research is pursued using our in-house geographic information systems (GIS) capabilities, as well as drawing on theoretical constructs from cultural-landscapes theory and cultural geography. Using these approaches, we have addressed research issues such as prehistoric lifeways in the Transition Zone, shifting cultural boundaries between the desert Hohokam and mountain Mogollon, chronology, and the occupation of persistent places. Most important, the long-term investigation of a single area—the mountain Transition Zone of Arizona—through multiple projects under an overarching research framework has enabled us to synthesize the prehistory of an intriguing and important region while meeting our client’s needs.
