Would you rather transport the oil in trains?

Enbridge Inc. said Friday it has hired companies to design and build a disputed oil pipeline tunnel beneath the channel linking Lakes Huron and Michigan, despite pending legal challenges.

The Canadian company is forging ahead with plans to begin construction work next year on the tunnel, which would replace twin pipes that have lain across the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan since 1953.

State Attorney General Dana Nessel is appealing a Michigan Court of Claims ruling last October that upheld an agreement between Enbridge and former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration to drill the tunnel through bedrock beneath the straits. The case is before the state Court of Appeals, which declined to put the lower court ruling on hold while considering the matter.