MIDDLESEX TWP — About 20 residents whose homes would be taken or directly impacted by a Route 228 realignment proposal asked township supervisors Wednesday night for help fighting the plan.

Four or five properties on Allemande Lane and Harbison Road would be taken in the state Department of Transportation’s 1.5-mile Ball’s Bend project, and the residents said some of the homes not taken would be close to the new five-lane highway.

The project would remove the curves on Route 228 between Route 8 and Quality Gardens.

Tom Napierkowski, whose house is along Route 228, said the project would divide his property into two pieces and come within 50 feet of his porch.

He said the group of longtime homes on Allemande Lane and Harbison Road will be devastated if the project goes through.

“That little community will be hugely affected,” Napierkowski said.

Debbi Kenney, also of Route 228, said the drawings of the proposed realignment show the new road 50 feet from her home.

She said she paid $11,000 to connect to the public sewer line, and recently she made many expensive improvements on her home.

Kenney doubts she would be fully compensated when PennDOT pays her fair market value for her property.

Rich Reilly said he and all of the neighbors on Allemande Lane recently chipped in to have the private lane paved.

He also said he recently built a garage, not knowing his property was in jeopardy from the proposed project.

Reilly said it is imperative to fight the project before it is funded in 2017.

“It seems they are just trying to push it through,” Reilly said.

Tom McMeekin, who owns Quality Gardens, reminded the supervisors that in 2005 PennDOT involved the community and formed an ad hoc committee of public officials, private citizens, business owners and municipal officials to work with PennDOT on a Route 228 improvement project that would have widened the entire highway from Route 8 to Route 19 in Cranberry Township.

The project was later scrapped due to a lack of funding, but McMeekin wondered what happened to the spirit of cooperation that was touted back then by PennDOT.

He said although everyone agrees Ball’s Bend, the sharpest curve in the highway, should be eliminated, PennDOT officials agreed the best option was to widen Route 228 along its existing path.

“It’s preposterous,” McMeekin said of the new route. “Somebody said ‘Lets draw a straight line here’ (from Route 8 to Quality Gardens).”

The supervisors said they are largely in the dark on the project, and that PennDOT officials in the fall had the meeting to announce the project in Adams Township.

Supervisors Chairman Mike Spreng said he saw the early project maps and told PennDOT officials it looked acceptable, but he thought the residents to be impacted had been notified at that time.

The residents asked the supervisors to help advocate for them even though PennDOT does not need their approval to proceed.

“Our hands are extended to you guys,” Napierkowski said.

The supervisors said they will demand a meeting with PennDOT officials.

“I am somebody who will look at your side,” said Supervisor James “Hap” Evans. “I can’t imagine living somewhere my whole life and having someone come and say, ‘We’re coming through your house.’”

Township solicitor Mike Hnath reminded the crowd that PennDOT can proceed with the project wherever it chooses.

“The question is can we convince them to do it somewhere else?” Hnath said.

The supervisors said they will contact the affected residents if and when they get a meeting with PennDOT officials.