Amazon Plans To Use Closed Milford Warehouse For Robots

MILFORD, MA — An Amazon warehouse in Milford that the company is planning to close may soon be used to store the Seattle-based company's robots.

Amazon has asked the Milford Planning Board to approve a new use for the warehouse at 8 Industrial Drive. Amazon revealed the Milford closure along with four other Massachusetts sites in August.

In a letter to the Planning Board, Amazon says it wants to use the Industrial Road building to support other warehouses that use robots to fulfill orders.

About 8,800 square feet will be used to store pallets packed with "fabric bin arrays," which hold items in active warehouses. Amazon's robotic picking machines grab items from pockets in the fabric arrays before the items get shipped to customers.

Another 20,000 square-feet of the warehouse would be used to store scores of robotic drive units. The machines, which run on lithium-ion batteries, are about 14 inches tall and up to 3 feet long.

The new use of the Industrial Road site will eliminate a significant amount of traffic going to and from the warehouse, Town Planner Larry Dunkin said. Van traffic around the warehouse has been an aggravation for the town and local residents for years. Amazon still operates a sortation center in Milford along National Street.

According to Amazon, up to 20 employees would work at the facility between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily. The building would also see a steady flow of semitrailers, which would deliver robots and pallets for storage. The company calls semitrailers "line hauls."

"The outbound operation is based on fulfillment center demand signals and does not have a specific number of daily line hauls or an exact schedule. However, we do not expect outbound traffic to exceed inbound delivery traffic," Amazon said in a letter to the Planning Board.

The Planning Board will review Amazon's proposal at a meeting set for Oct. 4.