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MnDOT grants $406K for Highway 14 expansion interchanges

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) announced Thursday that a $409,950 Transportation Economic Development (TED) grant will help pay for Highway 14 four-lane expansion project interchanges at County Road 37 southeast of New Ulm and County Road 12/24 at Courtland.

The highway department received 15 applicants. Four projects were determined ineligible or were withdrawn from consideration by applicants. The remaining 11 projects were scored on a 100-point scale.

In its application, Nicollet County requested $1.85 million for the interchanges and roundabouts.

“Nicollet County is very excited to be successful in getting the grant to offset project costs,” said Nicollet County Highway Engineer Seth Greenwood. “It’s nice to reduce the bill. The project is very well worth it.”

“This announcement reduces the (interchange project) burden on Nicollet County from about $3.5 million to about $3.1 million,” said MnDOT District 7 Project Manager Zach Tess of Mankato. “They are helping pay for the interchanges because they intersect county roads.”

Tess said an interchange with roundabouts will be located near the existing Highway 14/County Road 37 interchange. County Highway 37 will be routed over the top of Highway 14.

At Courtland, Highway 14 will be routed over County Road 12 to the north and County Road 24 to the south, about a half mile north of where Highway 14 is now.

Tess said MnDOT is working with landowners on land acquisition. A final design is to be completed by this summer before bids will be received. Construction would be done from spring 2022 to fall 2023.

Project plans call for detouring TH 15 south of New Ulm to TH 68, going east and north through Nicollet on TH 111 and the County Road 23 interchange from spring 2022 to the fall of 2023.

Last fall, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved a $22 million grant for Highway 14 corridor completion.

Earlier last year, MnDOT applied for a Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant that will be used along with state funds to complete the 12.5 mile four-lane project between New Ulm and Nicollet.

“The state picked up highway reconstruction costs. Interchange costs are shared,” said MnDOT Program Manager Ken Buckeye. “There are a lot of additional state funds going into the project. They put together quite a number of funding sources. We fell it’s an important project to finally get built.”

New Ulm Mayor Bob Beussman said the news of the MnDOT project grant was some of the best news he’s heard in a long time.

“It’s been a long time coming. I’m excited, waiting to watch for groundbreaking and those things,” said Beussman.

For more information, visit www.dot.state.mn.us/d7/projects/14newulmtomankato/index.html

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.

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