Posted on April 9, 2025
Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District use a heavy equipment excavator to remove rubble from a riverside wall of the Monongahela River Locks and Dam 3 near Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, Feb. 25, 2025.
The Pittsburgh District began dismantling the Elizabeth Locks and Dam’s lock chambers in January 2025. The district expects work to remove the lock chambers to be completed in spring 2027.
The Pittsburgh District’s construction office used explosives and heavy equipment machinery on working fleets to remove the facility’s 750-foot dam in 2024. Removing the dam opened approximately 33 miles of uninterrupted riverways to navigation from Braddock to Charleroi, Pennsylvania. The locking facility in Elizabeth had been in operation since 1907.
Removing the dam caused the water elevation to drop approximately two feet between the towns of Charleroi and Elizabeth. Dredging deepens the river to create at least nine feet of draft, allowing industry vessels to transport heavy commodities through the region.
Removing the dam from the river helped eliminate an aging bottleneck that required costly maintenance repairs and caused commercial boats with large tows to slow down through this portion of the river. The removal is part of the decades-long Lower Monongahela River Project, which provides $200 million in economic benefits to navigation industries annually.
