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An effort to repair and restore North Dakota’s only railroad tunnel is underway. The former Great Northern Railway Cartwright Tunnel near the North Dakota-Montana border has fallen into disrepair and a local group is hoping to save it from collapse, the Associated Press reports.
The tunnel was last used in the 1980s and it and the nearby Fairview Lift Bridge were added to the National Historic Registry in 1997. The tunnel is currently open but people are worried that if its condition were to deteriorate more, it may have to be closed. "It's a very popular site and we would hate to see where it would ever come to a point where it would have to be closed to the public," says Fairview (Mont.) Chamber of Commerce member Kerry Finsaas.
An engineering assessment determined it would cost at least $500,000 to stabilize the tunnel. Area residents are hoping to raise funds to save it in the coming months.