Resident urges independent review of Amazon traffic study, cites safety and pavement concerns

Christine Williams, a Sun Prairie resident, urged village and county officials to commission an independent review of Amazon’s traffic impact study and to make the full analysis public before the proposed distribution center opens.

"I'm here to respectfully ask the village, Dane County, and Wisconsin DOT to ensure full due diligence and transparency with review of the traffic and safety impacts associated with the new Amazon distribution center," Williams said during public comment. She said the TIS materials available to the public appear to be a summary prepared by Amazon’s consultant and that key technical components are missing from publicly accessible records.

Williams told the committee the publicly unavailable items she considers essential include full level‑of‑service tables, queue‑length modeling, heavy‑vehicle sensitivity analysis, ramp‑terminal performance summaries, roundabout capacity analysis, pavement‑impact modeling and any Wisconsin DOT review letters or engineering memos. "Without these, the public cannot meaningfully assess whether the interchange is prepared for the traffic volumes expected," she said.

Williams also raised operational concerns: she said roundabouts near I‑94 and County N were rebuilt in 2011 and "were not designed for distribution center level truck volumes," that adding roughly 1,000 peak‑hour trips with many heavy trucks could risk roundabout saturation and queue spillback onto interstate ramps, and that even if Amazon shifts truck movements to off‑peak hours, that would not reduce structural wear. She warned such congestion could delay first responders and said other Wisconsin communities required major upgrades within one to three years of similar facilities opening.

Staff responded in the meeting that the full analysis exists in multiple appendices and that Strand conducted a third‑party review on the village’s behalf. "It has been approved by the state and the county," staff said, and pledged to check what is posted on the website and to work with staff to post additional materials or provide general updates online.

Several committee members asked staff to place Amazon as a standalone future agenda item so the committee can discuss the documents and staff reviews when available. "Even if you guys aren't necessarily ready to bring us kind of the evaluation of the documents you have, I think we should still keep a conversation going," one member said.

What happens next: staff said they will check website posting of design and TIS materials and provide a general update; the committee signaled support for a future agenda item dedicated to Amazon and traffic flow after staff completes its review.