Phase I Cultural Resource Survey of the York Street Bridge Replacement Project, City of Aiken, Aiken County, South Carolina

"New South Associates, under subcontract to Davis & Floyd, conducted a Phase I Cultural Resource Survey of the proposed replacement of the York Street (S-2-31) bridges over the Norfolk Southern Railroad cut in response to a request by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT). The proposed project, located within the Aiken Winter Colony Historic District II, would remove the existing low profile pair of wooden bridges and replace them with a one, two-lane concrete and masonry bridge (Figure 1). Since the proposed replacement concrete bridge will have a deeper structure depth than the existing paired bridges, the existing grade will be need to be raised in order to provide proper vertical clearance over the railroad. The proposed design of the single bridge replacement allows for the grade to be raised without obtaining additional right-of-way (ROW) and impacting adjacent property owners. As a result of the change to a single bridge concept, York Street and its medians on either side of the existing bridges will be reconfigured in order to route traffic over the new bridge (Figure 2). The project area extends approximately 1,000 feet to the north and south and approximately 75 feet to the east and west. The existing bridges, constructed in 1993, while not historic, reflect the construction method and materials of previous bridges as well as the road improvements to York Street that were completed in the mid1950s."