Out of This World

Video by Michel Sauret

Walking Tour: Elizabeth Locks Demolition

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District

March 5, 2025 | 4:38

Drew Bechtold, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District’s resident engineer for the Lower Mon Resident Office, offers a walking tour of the Monongahela River Locks and Dam 3 which is currently undergoing demolition of its locks near Elizabeth, Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburgh District’s construction office used explosives and heavy-equipment machinery on working fleets to remove the 750-foot dam from the facility in 2024. The dam’s removal opened approximately 33 miles of uninterrupted riverways to navigation from the towns of Braddock to Charleroi, Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburgh District began dismantling the lock chambers in January. The work to demolish and remove the lock chambers is expected continue until spring 2027.

The locking facility in Elizabeth had been in operation since 1907. Originally the dam served to raise the river’s depth to allow large towboats to transport commodities on the river year-round, but due to the facility’s aging infrastructure and upgrades made to other locks and dams on the Monongahela River, the Elizabeth-based locks and dam became more of a navigation obstacle than a benefit.

Removing the locks and 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.

(U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District photo by Michel Sauret)

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