MIDDLESEX TWP — The state will pay an estimated $2 million to $5 million for the properties that will be impacted in the Route 228 Ball's Bend realignment, according to a state Department of Transportation official.

Chad Mosco, a PennDOT design project manager, said at least six or seven properties on and around Allemande Lane off Harbison Road, as well as a few along Route 228, would be taken to complete the alignment of Route 228.

Three sweeping bends will be removed when the new, five-lane highway extends in a straight line between the current intersection of Route 8 and Route 228 West and the area of Quality Gardens.

“It could (increase) to 10 or 11, easily,” Mosco said of the number of properties that could be taken in the project.

He said the property owners would be paid fair market value, and PennDOT will relocate homeowners to a similar property if their property is in the path of the project.

He said at least 30 properties will be indirectly affected by the current alignment, meaning either driveways will need to be adjusted to accommodate the new highway or that existing homes will be near the road.

Mosco said that regarding homes that will be near the highway, PennDOT looks at the property in its existing state as well as when it will be close to the new highway. The property value before and after the project will be decided, and the homeowner will be compensated according to the two amounts.

“So basically they're compensated for the damage the project will do to their property,” Mosco said.

He said if the property owner does not agree with that figure, PennDOT will pay for the homeowner to get his own appraisal. The amount to be paid for the damage is then negotiated between the homeowner and PennDOT, Mosco said.

He said the road straightening project was presented in mid-November at the Adams Township Municipal Building because Middlesex Township supervisors were meeting at their building on the night officials wanted to present the plan to the public.

Mosco said PennDOT officials also looked into holding the meeting at the Middlesex Township Volunteer Fire Company's hall, but did not do that because a fee would have been charged.

“We asked Adams Township, which is basically next door, if they had a facility we could use, and they did,” Mosco said. “We tried to have it in Middlesex, but we weren't getting a good response from the fire hall.”

He said the Middlesex supervisors learned about the realignment plan at an earlier township planning commission meeting, where the township engineer presented the map.

Mosco said he was told the supervisors gave the project the green light at that time.

Middlesex supervisor Chairman Mike Spreng said at Wednesday's supervisors meeting that he thought the affected property owners already had been notified of the project when the supervisors first saw the project.

Mosco said one month before the public presentation of the project in Adams Township, PennDOT sent more than 100 letters to property owners who would potentially be impacted in the project.

Mosco stressed that the project is still in the study phase and that alignments of roads and driveways has not yet been engineered. He said normally PennDOT waits until that part of the project has been completed, but that his team wanted to present the plans to the public to get input.

“Because it's such a drastic change compared to earlier (Route 228) studies, we wanted to see what kind of issues might come up,” Mosco said.

He said his team would meet with supervisors to discuss their concerns, a demand that residents made at a recent supervisors' meeting.

“We all have to work together in this,” Mosco said.

Although a complete time line of the project is impossible because it is unfinished, he expects properties will be taken beginning in late 2016 or early 2017. He said that project will take about 18 months to complete.

Construction is expected to begin in 2019.