Pana Mayor Steve Sipes has received word from the Illinois Department of Transportation that they are considering splitting the U.S. Route 51 four lane bypass around Pana. The original Pana bypass is designed to go from 2.7 miles north of Illinois Rt. 16 to 0.4 miles north of the Shelby County line just south of Pana.
Mayor Sipes talked about what he thinks of the Split 51 idea.
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Sipes also talked about what Split 51 could do for Pana.
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Developers have viewed Pana as being in the middle of a 180 mile transportation travel corridor from Bloomington Illinois to Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Illinois Rt. 29 feeds traffic to the intersection at Pana with U.S. Route 51 and Illinois Route 16 which has become referred to as “Pana Crossing”.
