A diver looks over the integrity of the former government dock. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
The future of King's Landing was under scrutiny last Friday.
City Councillor Mark King confirmed that divers were busy taking a close look at the condition of the dock.
Back in May, the Federal government gave the city $300,000 in funding to exercise a feasibility study as to what to do with the aging dock at the North Bay Waterfront.
King’s Landing, is named after Mark King’s father Don King, a former city councillor himself.
“We have one of the subcontractors in right now, you will see people diving and what they are doing is they are looking at the structural integrity of Kings Landing,” said King.
“That report will come back to council indicating where we are with it and at that point some sort of decision will have to be made about what we are going to do with that facility.”
King believes some of the findings are optimistic.
“It will tell the tale about the condition of the dock and I can tell you by talking to the foreman at this point you know some of the dock is in excellent condition, some of it, there are problems with cribbing and what not which we expected, but it looks positive to me at this point,” he said.
The formally federally-owned Government Dock was transferred to the City of North Bay in 1997, and at that point the maintenance and development of the wharf became the City’s responsibility.
Now, with the wealth of potential upside identified, the City is taking the next steps in bringing the wharf’s development to fruition.
Some options on the table are to fix the wharf, demolish it and build a new break wall with a new dock for the Chief Commanda cruise ship, or build a larger new wharf with cruise ship docking and the potential to construct new facilities.
