Cultural Resource Survey for the Broadway Road Sanitary Sewer Project, Phoenix, Arizona

Summary

The City of Phoenix is installing a 48-inch sewer line within Broadway Road between 75th Avenue and 91st Avenue. The street right-of-way is held by the City of Phoenix, and the project must therefore be implemented in compliance with the Arizona Antiquities Act (ARS 41-841 through 41- 847). The Act requires those in charge of activities on lands owned or controlled by the State of Arizona or local governments to notify the director of the Arizona State Museum of the discovery of any archaeological sites, historical resources, or human remains. The City Archaeologist’s review of the project concluded that remnants of a Hohokam irrigation canal could be buried within the project area.When the project began, the construction plans also called for relocating two irrigation ditches that were part of the historical Salt River Project (SRP) canal system. At that time it was thought that the federal government owned both of these ditches and that the relocation of those structures was therefore a federal undertaking subject to compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. In 2001, the Bureau of Reclamation, SRP, and the State Historic Preservation Office executed a Section 106 Programmatic Agreement Regarding Historic Preservation Treatment for the SRP System of Historic Main Canals, Laterals, and Associated Features. Neither of the two ditches had been identified under the terms of the programmatic agreement as features of the system to be preserved in place, but the programmatic agreement stipulated that any lateral affected by an undertaking would be surveyed for prehistoric sites. One of the ditches was within an area that had been previously surveyed intensively for cultural resources, but the other had not been surveyed. The City of Phoenix retained URS Corporation to prepare and implement a plan for cultural resource survey, testing, and data recovery to facilitate compliance with the Arizona Antiquities Act and the SRP programmatic agreement. The plan proposed archaeological testing to search for evidence of the possible Hohokam canal mapped by Frank Midvale, and intensive survey of the SRP drain/pump ditch that was outside of the area previously surveyed. Implementation of the planned cultural resource investigations was delayed because the City of Phoenix was unable to acquire additional right-of-way that was required to relocate the two SRP ditches. Without the additional right-of-way, there was insufficient room to excavate the proposed archaeological test trenches. Archaeological monitoring of construction was explored as an alternative way to search for Hohokam canals, but there was no effective and safe way to archaeologically monitor the 20-foot wide, 30-foot-deep trench, which could not be approached closer than 5 feet because of unstable trench walls and minimal temporary shoring during installation of the sewer pipes.Although the City of Phoenix was unable to acquire additional right-of-way in this area, SRP negotiated temporary easements that allowed them to install pipes on the surface of the ground outside the existing street right-of- way to continue to move water while the ditches were taken out of service to accommodate the sewer construction activities. After construction is completed, SRP will reconstruct and line the drain/pump ditch in its original alignment and bury and pipe the other irrigation ditch in its original alignment.The planned archaeological survey was completed along the drain/pump ditch before it was obliterated. Although SRP maintains this drain/pump ditch, it was determined that the ditch and the land on which it is located is privately owned. This report documents the goals, methods, and results of the cultural resource survey, and also documents information about the history of the two SRP ditches.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Salt River Project Digital Library

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Salt River Project Cultural Resource Manager

Principal Investigator(s): A.E. (Gene) Rogge

Repository(s): Salt River Project, Tempe, AZ

Prepared By(s): URS Corporation

Submitted To(s): City of Phoenix Water Services Department, Arizona State Land Department

Record Identifiers

On-Call Contract Number(s): 101006, Task 4

Pueblo Grande Museum Project Number(s): PGM 2003-14

Arizona Antiquities Act Blanket Permit Number(s): 2004-17bl

URS Job No.(s): 23443281

City of Phoenix Cost Center Number(s): WS90500123

URS Cultural Resource Report(s): 2005-2(AZ)

Accession Number(s): 2004-0812

File Information