MnDOT offers

information on 4-lane

Highway 14 expansion

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

COURTLAND -- They came, they saw and, generally, they approved of what Minnesota Department of Transportation says it is planning to do in expanding U.S. Highway 14 to four lanes from North Mankato to New Ulm.

Still, there was an air of skepticism among many who attended MnDOT District 7's first of four informal "listening" meetings that are planned along the 22-mile project's corridor this month.

"Do you actually think this is going to happen?" a woman asked a MnDOT employee.

"While an impact statement has an indefinite shelf-life, we usually think in terms of it lasting three years; But, no, it doesn't guarantee that the project will be going immediately on MnDOT's 10-year construction schedule," said Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Project Manager Peter Harff.

"There has to be funding available before it can go on the construction schedule. The acceleration of the Janesville to Waseca segment because of Governor Pawlenty's 2003 bonding measure doesn't mean this project will become a reality any sooner, either," Harff said.

"We have an opportunity to get work going on Waseca by-pass to Owatonna possibly as early as 2007. Presently, it is scheduled for 2010. We also have a lot of work to do on Highway 60 so we'll have to wait and see when money might become available for the North Mankato-New Ulm expansion. You never know where it may come from, perhaps more federal money or possibly more state money."

An EIS reviews the potential impacts of various highway improvement alternatives.

So, why is MnDOT hitting the bricks early to find out what people think about the project?

"We're learning that it eliminates a lot of problems down the road, and it also gives us a better start on a project like this if we find out early-on what people are thinking," Harff said.

This four-pack of informal public meetings won't be the last, either.

"After we have the EIS draft put together, we'll be back to these same locations to see what they think of it."

As some people peered at an aerial-photo map of the current highway stretched across three banquet-length tables, others looked at an enlarged U.S. Highway 14 schematic with call-outs indicating the project's length, the near north and far north Courtland bypass, the near south and far south Nicollet bypass and the Courtland/Top of Bluff Alignment.

On the east, the project starts at the County Road 6 intersection on the west edge of North Mankato, and it ends at the State Highway 15 intersection just across the Minnesota River from New Ulm.

Harff said the project timetable calls for a final draft by summer of next year and full completion of the EIS by early 2006.

The informal meeting followed a meeting of MnDOT's project advisory committee, consisting of city and county officials from all along the Highway 14 corridor.

The next meeting is Thursday, July 8, at the North Mankato Fire Station No. 2, from 4:30 to 7 p.m.