(Mankato, MN) – If you’ve been yearning to see a four-lane Highway 14 between Nicollet and New Ulm, you have a chance to show up and be heard on Friday.

The Minnesota House Transportation Committee will hear testimony on a bill that would finance an $85 million project to would expand the deadly stretch of road to four-lanes.

Minnesota State Representative Jeff Brand (D-St. Peter),  the lead on the bill, said he needs southern Minnesotans to be vocal about the legislation.  The bill would appropriate trunk highway funds for the final piece of a decades-long project to expand the highway from Rochester to New Ulm.

“We need a full court press,” Brand told SMN in early February.  “We need everybody on this issue at once.  We need people writing letters to the editors.  We need people making phone calls to people on the transportation committee on both the house and the Senate.”

The hearing is Friday, March 8th at Mankato City Hall, 10 Civic Center Plaza from noon to 3 p.m.  Anyone interested in speaking at the event should contact Brand’s office at (651) 296-8634.

“I’m really hoping for a packed crowd,” said Brand.  “This isn’t political theater, this is actually bringing the legislature to people’s front door.  People who can’t access the Capitol very easily or don’t want to drive up to St. Paul, this is an opportunity for them to show up in Mankato and be heard.  This is what it’s going to take.”

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