Continued: Part 2: Hwy. 14, Highway of horrors

The nonpartisan group includes 21 municipalities and 55 private-sector affiliates along the corridor, which 45,000 people use every day.

Cuts were on the table

This fall, the group swung into action after MnDOT told legislators that it was considering $8.4 million in cuts to projects scheduled for the south-central district that includes a large portion of Hwy. 14.

The proposed budget cut threatened to stall preliminary work next summer on a $150 million expansion of Hwy. 14 from two to four lanes between Owatonna and Waseca.

“The four-lane upgrade of Highway 14 from Rochester to New Ulm has been in process for four decades,” Kuntz wrote to Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, MnDOT’s commissioner. “The citizens of southern Minnesota should not have to wait any longer for a safe and reliable route.”Bob McFarlin, Molnau’s assistant, said MnDOT is no longer considering budget cuts that would interfere with that work on Hwy. 14.

Work on the four-lane expansion from Owatonna to Waseca is expected to begin by midsummer and be finished by 2012 at the latest, McFarlin said.

Molnau declined to be interviewed, but said in a written statement, “This administration inherited the problems on Highway 14 — but we’re the ones fixing them. ... This administration has supported Highway 14 improvements and will continue as funds allow.’’

Kuntz and other southern Minnesotans say that MnDOT is putting fiscal restraint ahead of road improvements that would save lives.

Their biggest frustration is that MnDOT has not yet set a definite time to widen the increasingly busy two-lane stretch from New Ulm to North Mankato. According to a MnDOT document, one part of that road has a crash rate and crash severity rate “significantly higher than average for a rural two-lane road.”

No construction is scheduled on that stretch, MnDOT said, because no money is available.