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After announcing their intention to buy 70 acres of the Georgia-Pacific millsite in September, Skunk Train executives are still waiting for the final pieces to fall into place to complete the purchase.

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The Skunk Train partnered with city government last year to apply for a $16.8 million grant to pay for repairs to Tunnel No. 1, six miles up Pudding Creek from the Fort Bragg depot, that collapsed in 2015 and cut off the line to Willits.

The company has made repeated attempts to stabilize the hillside there, which Pinoli said was in a constant state of sliding until, it is hoped, the latest round of engineering work that was completed last summer. Pinoli said the hillside was essentially covered in a steel net anchored to bedrock and the area is being left to settle for two to three years before engineers take another close look and decide whether to start work on the tunnel itself.

Pinoli said he’s learned a lot about coastal geology in the last four years.

“We know that hillside was on the move long before the tunnel was put in in 1893,” he said.

But funding for repairs has to be found as well and the federal Department of Transportation did not approve the 2018 grant application.