Its T-shape gone because its wings have been sliced off, the crane support facility at the Port of Vicksburg has become more of a lowercase “l” as sections of its platform are removed to make way for newer, stronger piers to support it.

On Friday, a 350-ton crane supplied by Cooper/T. Smith removed 51 sections of concrete and box girders holding the 50-foot-wide dock together and loaded them onto a barge.

“We’re in the demolition phase right now,” said Lewis Miller of Riverside Construction, which will float the old concrete to its yard in Mound for resale.

New support piles will be driven to replace barge-battered piers found to be unstable by county engineers earlier this year, prompting a $3.4 million replacement of the 40-year-old structure.

A series of large piles will be added to the front of the dock to act as a buffer against barges bumping the dock. Piers bent out of place and deteriorating concrete found during inspections last winter were attributed to barge contact. Slab overlaying a 14-foot-wide section of the approach bridge used to accommodate rail traffic is also being replaced.

Warren County renewed $2.5 million in port improvement bonds to pay for most of the project, with federal and state grants picking up the rest of the tab. Work is to wrap up Dec. 27, but Miller has said conditions such as supply flow and availability may delay completion.

Cargo unloaded at the site has dawdled since February, when business slowed to a trickle as the county mulled how to address the dock’s stability issues. Tonnage reports from its contract operator, Kinder-Morgan, have varied since the project’s financing was finalized in May.