In the News

A vessel became the first to sail through the center of the Monongahela River Locks and Dam 3 near Elizabeth Thursday morning when the Army Corps of Engineers opened a 100-foot-wide navigation channel to commercial traffic.

"To restore normal navigation along this section of the Monongahela River required an extraordinary effort between key navigation stakeholders, the construction contractor, and the Corps of Engineers,” Army Corps Col. Nicholas Melin said Thursday.

The channel has a 56-foot width restriction and a 9-foot draft restriction, a spokesperson for the Army Corps said. Commercial vessels can also use the lock chamber — which has a 7-foot draft restriction — like recreational vessels are required to use, so as not to interfere with commercial traffic and ongoing construction.

The Army Corps said signs were placed upstream and downstream of the river that will ensure safe passage for all maritime traffic.

The dam removal and subsequent channel reopening was originally slated for the end of the year. But the Army Corps — the agency charged with leading the project — pivoted last month in response to mounting criticism from Pennsylvania lawmakers, residents and boaters who rely on the waterway, and doubled their efforts to produce a navigation channel through the existing dam by Aug. 28.

Despite their efforts — upping construction on the waterway to six days a week for more than 12 hours daily and doubling weekly demolitions to 100 ft in length — the opening was delayed by more than a week. Army Corps spokesperson Andrew Byrne cited safety as the key reason for the delay.

"While our priority is to provide an unrestricted channel, safety is more important," he wrote in an email to the Post-Gazette on Wednesday.

The agency plans to complete the full channel by the end of December, Col. Melin said.

Once the structure is removed completely, the river level between the Braddock and John P. Murtha locks and dams will adjust to about one-half to one foot lower than the current river levels, according to the Army Corps.

Last week, the John P. Murtha Locks & Dam — formerly known as Locks and Dam 4 — in Charleroi opened to maritime traffic, the culmination of a two-decade project conducted by the Corps as part of the Lower Monongahela River Project.

In a joint letter addressed to Army Corps Lt. General Scott A. Spellmon last month, U.S. lawmakers Sen. Bob Casey, Sen. John Fetterman, Rep. Summer Lee, Rep. Chris Deluzio and Rep. Guy Reschenthaler cautioned that restrictions of the waterway had "adverse economic impacts on local businesses and residents who rely on the river," and asked the Corps to "rectify the issue on or before the Corps' internal deadline of Aug. 28."

"Any additional delays will have steep economic costs for Southwestern Pennsylvania," the letter reads.

Removing the dam is the final phase of a $2.8 billion project that started in 1994 to modernize locks 2, 3, and 4 on the lower Monongahela River in the Braddock, Elizabeth and Charleroi areas. The removal creates 30 miles of uninterrupted river navigation, reducing transit times and allowing the navigation industry to take larger loads on the river.

When completed, the Army Corps estimates the project will return more than $200 million annually in business opportunities for the region and the nation.

Pennsylvania's waterways, ports and related industries also support about 248,000 jobs and generate $19.3 billion in personal income and $4.3 billion in state and local tax revenue each year.