Article Title

Intensive Archeological Survey for Proposed East Pecan Street Widening, City of Pflugerville, Travis County, Texas

Authors

Haley Rush

Agency

Texas Historical Commission

Abstract

In January 2015, an intensive archeological survey was completed in order to inventory and evaluate archeological resources within the footprint of proposed improvements to East Pecan Street in Pflugerville, Travis County, Texas. The proposed project would provide base repairs and include widening a portion of East Pecan Street. The portion of the project area that includes the widening extends from State Highway (SH) 130 to Weiss Lane; base repairs would include a concrete underlay that would extend east of Weiss Lane toward the intersection of Cameron Lane. The maintenance activities associated with the concrete underlay east of Weiss Lane would occur entirely within the existing footprint of East Pecan Street. As no improvements would occur outside of existing right-of-way west of Weiss Lane, the limits of the archeological area of potential effects (APE) were defined from Weiss Lane to SH 130. The APE is approximately 0.4 miles or 0.64 kilometers long and is between 115 to 155 feet or 35 to 47 meters wide. The APE covers an area of approximately 2.8 hectares or 7 acres, 2.4 acres of which is proposed right-of-way. The depth of impact will generally extend to a depth of two feet or less, although impacts could be deeper at drain and utility locations. The work was carried out for the City of Pflugerville under Texas Antiquities Permit 7150 by Haley Rush (Principal Investigator) and Walt Meitzen of Cox|McLain Environmental Consulting, Inc. (CMEC), a subcontractor to Cobb Fendley.

Nearly the entire APE was disturbed, primarily by the construction of the existing two-lane roadway, utility installations, and agricultural activities. All of the parcels adjacent to the existing roadway are either currently used for agricultural activities or have been in the past. The ground surface visibility varied across the project area. It was nearly 100 percent in two of the fields, as one field had been recently planted and the other had been plowed in the recent past. The other fields had ground surface visibility ranging from 30 to 70 percent and were not planted with crops, but aerial photographing and field observations confirmed these fields had been plowed and/or terraced in the past.

Shovel tests (n=3) were excavated in areas that had lower visibility. Two shovel tests were excavated in fallow fields and revealed dense clay with limestone cobbles and gravels. The remaining shovel test was excavated in a vegetated area between the existing roadway and a field. Numerous subsurface utilities were located in the vicinity of this shovel test and the profile confirmed that the area was very disturbed.

Two isolated flakes were observed in the APE, one (Isolated Find [IF] 1) in an actively utilized agricultural field and one (IF 2) in a field that had been plowed in the recent past. IF 2 was observed in a field with abundant chert cobbles and gravels on the surface; excluding Isolated Find 2, none of the other cobbles or gravels exhibited definitive flaking or use wear due to cultural processes.

Records for this project will be curated at the Center for Archeological Resrouces (CAS) at Texas State University; records include notes, forms, and photographs, per TAC 26.16 and 26.17. The Texas Historical Commission (THC) concurred with the findings and recommendations of this report on May 5, 2015 (see Appendix A).

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