Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District use a crane on a river fleet to remove a miter gate from the Monongahela River Locks and Dam 3 near Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, Feb. 25, 2025. 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. The dam’s removal opened approximately 33 miles of uninterrupted riverways to navigation from 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 to complete in 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 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. Removing the locks and dam 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)