Lower Windsor Township supervisors should consider hiring a new engineer.

Salem Church Road has been closed since June for the replacement of a small bridge over Fishing Creek.

With a proper design that bridge could have been built in less than a month and for a lot less tax money.

The bridge opening across Fishing Creek measures 22 feet 6 inches and appears to have 6 feet of clearance under the bridge for water flow.

There is a pre-cast bridge of nearly the same measurements located on West Bank Hill Road below East Maple Street near East Prospect.

That bridge was built about 35 years ago by a previous board of supervisors and measures 22 feet 4 inches across Canadochly Creek with 6 feet of clearance for water flow.

The bridge was factory pre-cast in sections, hauled there by truck and installed in one or two days with a large crane.

A brief check online will show that a company in New Holland produces sectional bridges (box culverts) with a stream opening width of up to 36 feet wide. An engineer should have recommended such a bridge, but that would have meant a lot less money for an engineering company, as they are paid on a percentage of the project cost.

The supervisors should interview some new engineering companies and demand experienced engineers rather than recent engineer school graduates.

Dean L. Graham

Lower Windsor Twp.