After decades of work, Hwy. 14 expansion complete

COURTLAND, Minn. — It took 60 years, hundreds of millions of dollars and numerous traffic deaths for communities along the Hwy. 14 corridor from Rochester to New Ulm to expand the road.

Now the campaign is done.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz joined local, state and federal officials Tuesday morning atop a new bridge north of Courtland, Minn., to officially open the highway. An expansion from Nicollet to New Ulm wrapped up earlier this month, completing the 100-mile stretch residents envisioned decades ago.

"To say this is a day we've been waiting for is an understatement," Walz said. "We would stand out here in a blizzard to finally finish this piece of highway."

Elected officials high-fived farmers, highway workers and residents in the near-freezing cold, declaring the project "a victory for Minnesota" as state Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, put it. They swapped stories of loved ones lost and the economic opportunities ahead now that Hwy. 14's expansion is complete.

The highway was built in 1926 as one of the nation's first numbered highways, stretching from Yellowstone National Park to Chicago. It was a two-lane highway throughout much of Minnesota for decades, despite lobbying starting in the 1960s from cities along the corridor in the south-central part of the state.

Local officials argued the expansion was crucial for the region's economic development, to make it easier for trucks to transport rural goods from farms to markets. About 9,000 vehicles — including 1,100 commercial trucks — cross Hwy. 14 daily in recent years.

Expansion work didn't begin in earnest until the 1980s, when then-U.S. Rep. Tim Penny secured funding for the first project near Rochester. Numerous politicians and locals have worked to garner support since.

"I never thought it would be done in my lifetime," said Fred Lutz, an 83-year-old retired soft drink distributor out of North Mankato.

Yet the highway was one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the state for years. A 2007 Star Tribune report noted 145 people had been killed on Hwy. 14 inMinnesota since the mid-1980s.

The corridor is filled with reminders, such as the North Mankato playground named for Al Fallenstein. The former minority owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and his wife, Erla, died in a crash on Hwy. 14 in 2003 after they hit a tractor-trailer on an icy patch of road.

The highway affects many of Minnesota's top leaders today — Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has relatives in New Ulm while U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar's in-laws live in Mankato. Republican U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, who represents southern Minnesota, said he used to pray his daughter would be safe traveling from New Ulm to Mankato for gymnastics practice.

Walz, who secured tens of millions of dollars for the highway while in Congress, noted his neighbor Charlie Ingman died on Hwy. 14 near Waseca in 1996. Walz said he could still remember state troopers coming into the gym where he coached seventh-grade boys basketball and telling Ingman's son about Charlie's death.

"So many of you have that story," Walz said. "So many neighbors lost, so many tragedies."

The road has become relatively safer in recent years, though state officials note accidents remained high in the area before this last expansion project.

From February 2010 to February 2020, 154 crashes took place on the two-lane stretch from Nicollet to New Ulm. Of those, three were fatalities and one resulted in serious injuries.

Yet communities are looking forward to expanded opportunities. Courtland Mayor Al Poehler said he was "just tickled" the highway would offer more traffic and potential land development to the community while Nicollet Mayor Fred Froehlich noted the town west of Mankato was already getting a few business inquiries.

"It's been so many decades, so many accidents, so much pain," Froehlich said. "Finally, we've got everything done. It's unbelievable."

Local officials may not rest on their laurels for long. Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, has worked on transportation and infrastructure issues for more than a decade. He pointed out there's still two-lane stretches of Hwy. 14 west of New Ulm.

"South Dakota, here we come!" Torkelson said.