September 27, 2001

A front-page article in Wednesday's Daily Times newspaper reported the results of a faulty traffic survey conducted by the Wis. Dept. of Transportation. The headline read, "Survey results indicate west bypass is best route," but what the article failed to report was that the Origination-Destination Study was conducted while passage in and out of the city on highway 16 and Watertown's main street, Summit Avenue, was closed for repair. In fact these roadways were closed as early as March 19, practically two months prior to the survey and were not reopened until recently, after the survey was conducted April 30 and May 1. This effectively altered the normal flow of traffic; diverting traffic that would normally have entered Watertown from the east using Highway 16 instead to I-94 and then to South Highway 26.

However, besides this blatant flaw in this traffic study, what is truly shocking is that on September 12 the WisDOT held an informational meeting regarding the survey results and Mr. Jeff Gust, Project Manager, admitted at that meeting that the survey results could be off considerably because of these road closings but that he felt, at the time, that it was more important to have a timely but faulty survey then no survey at all in order to accommodate State Rep. Steve Foti and State Rep. David Ward's timely request for this survey.

Also, what Mr. Gust, and Mr. Jim Oeth, of Earthtech, also indicated at this meeting was that, when all traffic entering Watertown via USH 26 is considered, only 18% of the traffic actually passes completely through the city while the remaining 82% stays in Watertown. Therefore, what the WisDOT is ultimately recommending is to spend $73 million of state taxpayer money to accommodate just a small fraction of the total Watertown traffic.

Additionally, the WisDOT has also failed to consider the very real traffic congestion relief that will result from widening Church Street to four lanes. USH 26 will be widened to four lanes all the way from Johnson Creek to Main Street in Watertown and construction begins in less than two years.

It has been recommended to Mr. Gust and the WisDOT that the survey be repeated but this time while the roads are actually open in order to obtain honest data.