A 200-foot chemical extraction column built in Vicksburg and floated down the Mississippi River past Vicksburg late Friday is expected to arrive at its Louisiana destination this week.

Dallas-based Alon USA hopes to install the 350,000-pound component, which acts as a vessel to separate liquids in several chemical processes, at a refinery in Krotz Springs, La. by Wednesday, spokesman Blake Lewis said.

Built by One Source Systems at fabrication yard at the Port of Vicksburg, the tower resembles a missile until it’s erected and is a standard piece of equipment in oil refining. Liquid is fed into the column from an inlet port as a solvent separates it from other chemicals. Liquid collects on a series of trays inside the column before the product is removed.

Employees marveled at the tower’s size as crews with Turner Industries Group jacked it up and slowly rolled it up Haining Road to an Anderson-Tully-owned dock along the Yazoo Diversion Canal.

“I worked at the old shop, and it’s definitely more substantial than anything we ever did,” said One Source engineering manager Don Meyer, also a former supervisor at SpecFab, which operated in the same facility until 2009.

A crew of about 20 worked to weld sections of steel to complete the tower, One Source officials have said.

“You ought to see the bigger ones we do,” said a Turner Industries foreman as the tower was prepared to move downriver. “This was a piece of cake.”