Efforts to add a new overhead crane at the Port of Vicksburg will continue despite hopes of extra money coming from the federal government being dimmed.

During a Monday meeting, County Engineer John McKee presented updated drawings to the port board of a new crane and a building to house it. Cost estimates have risen to $12 million for both, according to new drawings.

Local projects in line for funding from the $787 billion federal stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama in February and the $410 billion omnibus spending bill approved last week include three road segments inside Vicksburg. A longer smorgasbord of items submitted by county supervisors failed to make the list of 12 projects to be funded by the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s Office of State Aid Road Construction, the arm that subsidizes nonmunicipal road work.

Replacement of the 15-ton crane and its housing terminal has been eyed for grant funding for several years. It took a back seat to the T-dock support platform from which it works when the dock underwent a $3.4 million replacement that halted cargo loads at the port for much of 2007.

That effort was financed by the renewal of port improvement bonds already in place. McKee told commissioners a new crane by itself would cost about $6 million and that a new, 70-foot-high terminal was the ideal solution.

“If money were no object, that’s the better plan,” McKee said.

Commissioners OK’d ABMB Engineers Inc. to continue developing plans and specifications to cover all alternatives.

“If this is the best plan, then this is what we have,” chairman Johnny Moss said, deferring to Board of Supervisors’ President Richard George — in attendance for most board meetings since the dock replacement process — for an unofficial, yet final, vote of confidence.

“You’re looking at the same situation you were in with the T-dock,” George said, later referencing a cease-and-desist order sent to port operator Kinder Morgan Terminals Inc. this month ordering the company to halt unloading pig iron due to deep cracks in the surface of the new structure.

“These people are telling you it’s got to stand up for business of this day and time.”

Engineers have said the damage is caused by the weight of the loads. Kinder Morgan supervisor Keith Cochran told commissioners the damage was likely due to front-end loaders scraping the bottoms of loads. McKee said one possible solution is topping the dock’s surface with a metallic-aggregate substance common in construction involving hardened slabs. No cost was specified Monday, though McKee characterized it as “impressive.”

The board approved a recommendation by executive director Wayne Mansfield to allow the company to develop a plan of action to address the problem, to be reviewed by county engineers. A renewal of the company’s lease to operate the port has been in ongoing talks for more than a year, as local negotiators have waited for a separate deal to incorporate Vicksburg into the raw material transportation route for the SeverCorr plant in Columbus to materialize.

Cargo moved at the port dropped off in February to just more than 24,457 tons, with pig iron a notable absence. Monthly tonnage had averaged more than 40,000 tons from October through December, with the carbon-based raw material for steelmaking making up about half the total.

The commission remains the subject of a lawsuit by Riverside Construction, claiming breach of contract over delays in the project’s completion. In the case before Warren County Circuit Court, the company seeks a 2 1/2-month extension to its original contract, eased liquidated damages and more than $890,000 added to its $3.4 million construction contract.

*

Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.