S&ME Inc. News

Columbia, SC—In what may be a first for an Engineering Excellence Award win, an S&ME archeological project was judged tops in the Studies, Research and Consulting Engineering Services category in South Carolina.
The project managed by Bill Green, Cultural Resources Manager and Principal Archeologist for the Columbia branch, involved data recovery excavations for client South Carolina Electric& Gas Company (SCE&G). The competition was conducted by the American Council of Engineering Companies of South Carolina.
The excavations supported SCE&G’s relicensing of its Saluda Hydroelectric Project and dealt with mitigating effects of erosion on a part of the site located on private property. Green called the project a unique opportunity to investigate one of the state’s most important archeological sites containing thousands of artifacts dating from 13,500 to 700 years ago.
“Our excavations were among the largest, most comprehensive and deepest undertaken in the state,” Green said. The investigation required meticulous organization and problem-solving as many staff and specialists joined their skills to face multiple challenges, including a tropical storm that flooded excavations.
One challenge was to maintain superior standards of archaeological excavation and recording techniques, while complying with OSHA safety requirements. S&ME engineers and archaeologists jointly designed a plan allowing excavators to safely perform highly scientific investigations following both archaeological and engineering standards to complete one of South Carolina’s most complex archaeological projects.