The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

March 15, 2007

Mankato officials return from D.C. trip

Group lobbied for help with transportation

Dan Linehan

MANKATO — A delegation of Mankato officials are back from a trip to Washington, D.C., to lobby for almost $30 million in federal funding for area transportation projects.

City Manager Pat Hentges and four city councilmen met with Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tim Walz as well as staff from Rep. Jim Oberstar’s office during the National League of Cities trip.

Highway 14 was front and center.

“The biggest need of the region right now is just a better maintained and operating transportation system,” Council President Mike Laven said.

While there are no pieces of work left to be done in Mankato, every city along the corridor advocates for a four-lane expansion from New Ulm to Rochester, Hentges said. And he said lawmakers appreciate that solidarity.

An expansion between Mankato and Waseca was finished last year, but work to reconstruct the road farther east to Owatonna will cost an estimated $150 million.

Also at issue is a Highway 14 interchange at County Road 14 in North Mankato. About $3 million in federal planning money is being requested.

Blue Earth County planners are hoping to build another Highway 14 interchange at County Road 12, which will be extended south.

Other Highway 14 projects include work at the intersection of Highway 169 and design work for the segment between North Mankato and New Ulm.

Hentges said representatives have until Friday to turn in local projects for consideration in larger budget bills. He said earmarks, also known as pork spending, have become more transparent, but there’s still a place for individual projects.

Also at issue are needed upgrades to the city’s rail line, Hentges said. Namely, those are the rail crossings that interrupt traffic flow and the lack of crossing improvements. Those improvements would allow trains to go through town without blowing their whistles.

“Even if the project doesn’t go ahead,” Hentges said, referring to the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad’s expansion plans, “we still have a railroad problem.”

Walz is a political newcomer, but he sits on the transportation committee, which Oberstar chairs.

And while no one expects that the federal government will give the region everything it’s asking for, Laven said it’s important to try.

“You need to get in their face and be out there in person,” he said.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Local News