MIDDLESEX TWP — The proposed replacement of a small bridge would be a big headache for the owners of adjacent properties.

That was the contention of Bill Guesman, who owns the former Girl Scout camp on West Cruikshank Road near the Anderson Run bridge. The bridge will be replaced by the state Department of Transportation.

Guesman told the township supervisors Wednesday evening that PennDOT officials told him the one-lane bridge, which is about 50 feet long, would be closed for eight months.

He said that would make it difficult for school buses and emergency personnel to access his property and that of his neighbors for the better part of a year.

“I don’t feel it’s acceptable to inconvenience residents and put additional risk on them,” Guesman said.

He asked the supervisors to help him convince PennDOT that his alternative idea of building a new bridge beside the old one and then taking the old one down would be a better.

That also would remove the curves in the road on both approaches to the bridge, Guesman said.

He said PennDOT recently built a temporary bridge to carry traffic over Breakneck Creek when workers replaced a bridge on the eastern end of Myoma Road in Adams Township.

But township manager Scot Fodi and solicitor Michael Hnath said the volume of traffic is much higher on Myoma Road than the rural West Cruikshank.

Township engineer John Rusnak added that Guesman’s alternative also could be rejected by PennDOT because of the environmental impact of a new bridge.

Fodi questioned PennDOT’s assertion that the bridge would be closed for eight months because it is similar to a bridge project this past year on East Cruikshank Road.

“That took less than four months, and it was a bigger project,” Fodi said.

Guesman, who lives in Adams Township, uses the property for Boy Scout activities. He is affiliated with Troop 400 in Mars.

Rusnak said he would research the options PennDOT explored before deciding on closing the bridge to replace it.

“It’s not (the township’s) road, but they have a voice for the landowners in Middlesex,” Guesman said.