Jim James, a senior geotechnical engineer, and Jenna Cunningham, the Upper Ohio resident engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District, inspect soil stabilization work at a staging area that will be used as a concrete batch-plant site at Montgomery Locks and Dam in Monaca, Pennsylvania, Sept. 17, 2024. The batch plant site is nearly complete as contractors resurface and level the pad, add fencing, and other improvements. The site will allow a future contractor to operate a batch plant to produce 400,000 cubic yards of concrete for a new navigation chamber at Montgomery Locks and Dam. The project will replace the auxiliary chamber, measuring 56 feet wide by 360 feet long, with locks measuring 110 feet wide by 600 feet long. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided $857.7 million for construction at the Montgomery facility. The district expects the project to support more than 15,000 jobs nationally throughout the construction period. Transporting commodities on the waterways is four times less expensive than by truck and 33 percent cheaper than by rail. Between 15 million and 20 million tons of cargo travel on the upper Ohio River each year, including mainly coal, but also coke, petroleum products, raw and finished steel, and aggregates. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District photo by Michel Sauret)