WILLIAMSPORT, Md. (AP) -- The National Park Service says it plans to offer boat rides through a restored aqueduct on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Williamsport.

The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown  reported Friday that the agency has awarded a $430,000 design contract for restoration of the Conococheague (kah-nah-kah-CHEEG) Aqueduct.

The restoration should be finished by 2016 at a cost of $5 million to $6 million. Park Superintendent Kevin Brandt says it will be the only place in North America where people can ride a boat through an aqueduct, under a railroad lift bridge and through a working canal lock.

The aqueduct last carried canal boats over the mouth of the Conococheague Creek in the 1920s. It is one of 11 aqueducts along the nearly 185-mile canal between Cumberland and the District of Columbia.

(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)