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NATCHEZ — American Cruise Lines is moving forward with building a dock on Silver Street, which can potentially handle the docking of two riverboats at one time.

That announcement was made at Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Aldermen by Mayor Dan Gibson.

As background, the city had major plans to raise Silver Street and build a permanent dock to accommodate cruise ships from American Cruise Lines and Viking USA. The project would have protected the dock from flooding and created more development areas on Silver Street.

However, the city prioritized the Morgantown Road improvement project and rerouted funds it would’ve used on the Silver Street project to Morgantown Road.

“When we had American Cruise Lines here at Christmas celebrating their sponsorship of the Christmas Village, we followed that up with a meeting at City Hall, and Charles Robertson, president of American Cruise Lines, gave us an early Christmas gift by committing to building the dock, and they plan to begin planning immediately,” Gibson said.

“I have been holding this news until now, but we are ready to proceed with the project,” he said. “The dock will also include improvements of that area of Silver Street and make Natchez not only the home port for these boats but eventually, in years to come, people can fly into Natchez and overnight here and take their boat ride from Natchez. It’s a win-win situation.”

He hopes the city can work with Viking to build its dock in the Fulton Street area.