Students dressed in bright orange safety vests were busy swinging hammers, using drills and moving wooden docks around at the Lincoln Street Docks in Welland Wednesday morning.

The Grade 9 Notre Dame College School students were working on docks they built earlier this year at Niagara Catholic District School Board's Launch Centre on Niagara Street at the Seaway Mall.

"We're very pleased with the work the students did," said Welland's manager of recreation and culture Richard Dalton as he watched the students work.

The floating docks - they're four-by-ten-foot - will be used for the ICF Canoe Polo World Championships which begin at the end of July.

Funding to build the docks came through the world championships and Dalton said they'll be owned by the city.

Once the students were finished putting the docks together at Lincoln Street Docks, which was expected to last a couple of days, city employees were to tow them down to the Welland International Flatwater Centre, where the worlds are being held.

Dalton said once they were finished using them at the worlds, they would be moved to different locations in the city.

Some, he said, would be coming back to Lincoln Street to be used there for another council-supported project.

Notre Dame technology teacher Joe Sciarra, who also teaches at the Launch Centre, said it took about two weeks for 50 students to build the docks.

"I thought it was a good project for the Grade 9 students. They haven't used a lot of tools before, and this was very repetitive, giving them a lot of time on the tools," he said.

One-hundred-twenty docks in total were built by both technology and math students.

"I ran it with the math class at the Launch Centre because I thought it would be a good project marrying math and technology," said Sciarra.

He said the docks would run nearly 25 metres in length once they were put together, and added it was a great partnership between the city and Launch Centre.

Nathaniel.Johnson@niagaradailies.com

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