Work on the renovation of the Mercator Dock in Ostend is now in full swing. The old commercial dock was converted into a marina in the 1970s. The infrastructure dating from that time is now 50 years old and needs to be updated. New pontoons and mooring posts are being installed.
The Mercator Marina, with the Royal North Sea Yacht Club as its main shareholder, is investing more than 600,000 euros to renew the infrastructure for recreational yachting in the Mercator Dock. The biggest task will be the removal of the steel mooring posts around the dock. These posts are planted 6 to 7 metres deep in the ground and need to be loosened with care. This will be done from a pontoon using a pile driver. Some of the posts are cracked and will need to be cut loose underwater by divers.
The new pontoons will arrive next week. 354 metres of floating walkways leading to the vessels are involved. In the meantime, the north side of the dock has also been completely cleared to carry out the works. A lot of work still needs to be done, but everything should be ready by 23 April.
Hubert Rubbens, chair of the Mercator Marina Ostend: ‘We are renovating everything ourselves, but we are also financing everything ourselves. That is quite a task. It involves an investment of 600,000 euros. We are borrowing money, but we are also partly working with money from our reserve fund.’