Getting a four-lane Highway 14 from North Mankato to New Ulm got a little closer after a federal grant of $315,000 has been secured to purchase some right-of-way.

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Mankato, announced Thursday the grant, as well as a similar $451,000 grant to relocate utilities between Waseca and Owatonna as part of the Highway 14 four-lane project there.

Local and state officials — part of the Highway 14 coalition — applied for the grants that Walz, who serves on the transportation committee, helped secure.

“Highway 14 is always something the congressman is advocating for,” said Meredith Salsbery, Walz’s communications director.

The entire four-lane project from North Mankato to New Ulm would cost as much as $245 million. The project has not yet been approved and no timetable for construction has been set.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is completing an Environmental Impact Statement on the project, which should be finalized in 2009.

Walz made the grant announcement at Kiesler’s Clear Lake Campground along Highway 14 in Waseca.

The Highway 14 four-lane expansion from Mankato to Owatonna has been going on for years and is completed from Mankato to Waseca.

Local officials have had less luck in getting federal and state backing for a four-lane to the west. The first stage of that project — three miles of work from North Mankato to the west, including an interchange at County Road 41 — has been delayed several years in a row and is still not funded.

Walz noted in a statement the danger of Highway 14, saying more than 25 people have been killed on the highway in the past 14 years. “It also creates added expenses for regional employers who rely on the road in its current worn out and undersized state to ship their goods.”