A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District contractor uses a hoe ram to demolish a monolith of the lower guard wall at Montgomery Locks and Dam in Monaca, Pennsylvania, May 29, 2025. Demolishing the lower guard wall is one of the first steps necessary to deconstructing the lock structure – the wall must be brought down to roughly two feet above river elevation, then contractors will remove debris from the river before transporting the debris for disposal. The Upper Ohio Navigation Project is part of the National Economic Development (NED) plan for improving the upper Ohio River navigation system, specifically the Emsworth, Dashields and Montgomery locks and dams. Emsworth, Dashields and Montgomery, each constructed prior to 1936, are the first three locks and dams on the Ohio River downstream of the Point of Pittsburgh. The three facilities have the oldest and smallest lock chambers operating along the entire river. The project involves replacing the auxiliary chamber at Montgomery Locks and Dam, measuring 56 feet wide by 360 feet long, with locks measuring 110 feet wide by 600 feet long. The Pittsburgh 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 photo by Andrew Byrne)