Monongahela River Locks and Dams 2, 3, and 4 Project
(Lower Mon)
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Project Synopsis
Locks and Dams 2, 3 and 4 on the Monongahela River in Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania, are the three oldest currently operating navigation facilities on the Monongahela River. These locks experience the highest volume of commercial traffic on the entire Monongahela River Navigation System and the pools created by these facilities provide industrial and municipal water, and are popular with recreational boaters.
The Lower Mon Project replaced the nearly 100 year-old fixed-crest dam at Braddock Locks and Dam with a gated dam, will remove Locks and Dam 3 in Elizabeth, and construct two new larger locks (Charleroi Locks) at Locks and Dam 4 in Charleroi.
These improvements will cause noteworthy changes to the Monongahela River. Removal of Locks and Dam 3 will create a single pool, between Braddock and Elizabeth, and cause the river to rise a nominal 5'. From Elizabeth to Charleroi, the river will drop a nominal 3.2'. Even though familiar river levels will change, there will be NO increase in flooding events along the Monongahela River.
The Lower Mon Project will fund the design and relocation of municipal facilities along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers adversely affected by the project pool changes. However, all costs associated with changes to private or commercial facilities, along these navigable waterways, are the responsibility of the facility owner. Although this will involve some expense in the short term, cost-effective long-term advantages will result from a 30-mile unimpeded section of river between Braddock and Charleroi.
To provide the authorized 9 foot navigation depth, approximately 1.2 million cubic yards of river bed material, mostly sands, gravels, and coal fines, will be dredged from the river bottom upstream of Elizabeth. These materials will be used to reclaim a former slag dump in Washington County, near Victory Hills, PA.
Locks and Dams 2, 3 and 4 on the Monongahela River in Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania, are the three oldest currently operating navigation facilities on the Monongahela River. These locks experience the highest volume of commercial traffic on the entire Monongahela River Navigation System and the pools created by these facilities provide industrial and municipal water, and are popular with recreational boaters.
The Lower Mon Project replaced the nearly 100 year-old fixed-crest dam at Braddock Locks and Dam with a gated dam, will remove Locks and Dam 3 in Elizabeth, and construct two new larger locks (Charleroi Locks) at Locks and Dam 4 in Charleroi.
These improvements will cause noteworthy changes to the Monongahela River. Removal of Locks and Dam 3 will create a single pool, between Braddock and Elizabeth, and cause the river to rise a nominal 5'. From Elizabeth to Charleroi, the river will drop a nominal 3.2'. Even though familiar river levels will change, there will be NO increase in flooding events along the Monongahela River.
The Lower Mon Project will fund the design and relocation of municipal facilities along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers adversely affected by the project pool changes. However, all costs associated with changes to private or commercial facilities, along these navigable waterways, are the responsibility of the facility owner. Although this will involve some expense in the short term, cost-effective long-term advantages will result from a 30-mile unimpeded section of river between Braddock and Charleroi.
To provide the authorized 9 foot navigation depth, approximately 1.2 million cubic yards of river bed material, mostly sands, gravels, and coal fines, will be dredged from the river bottom upstream of Elizabeth. These materials will be used to reclaim a former slag dump in Washington County, near Victory Hills, PA.
Project Benefits
Project benefits are estimated to be over $220 million per year. Project benefits are generated by shipping bulk goods via barge as opposed to shipping by rail or truck. By reducing the transportation costs of coal, for example, electrical suppliers that use coal to produce electricity are able to provide electricity at a lower rate, thus reducing costs to electrical customers. Additional benefits are derived from having less maintenance on old and unreliable facilities. Other benefits include keeping our roadways free from excessive truck traffic. This benefit alone will reduce the wear and tear on our local roadways, less vehicle emissions, and safer roadways for the general public.
One jumbo barge is equivalent to 15 rail road cars or 58 trucks. See the graphic below.
Navigation Risks
Any unscheduled closure of the facilities on the Monongahela River pose a significant threat to the local, regional, and national economy. Braddock dam's risk were mitigated by the completion of the new Braddock Dam in 2004. The gated dam allows additional risk mitigation at Locks and Dam 3. This is achieved by maintaining a higher pool elevation upstream of Braddock, reducing the differential loadings at Locks and Dam 3.
Locks and Dam 3 are highly unreliable and threaten to halt navigation on the Monongahela River at any time. The dam was in a progressive stage of failure in 2006 and 2007. Emergency repairs, expected to last for 5 to 10 years, were completed in 2007 and 2008. The locks at Lock and Dam 3 are also highly unreliable. Many of the components of the locks filling and emptying system are out of service and the landwall filling/emptying flume is severely deteriorated.
Charleroi Locks are also highly unreliable with no redundant lockage capability. The existing river chamber was taken out of service to allow for the construction of the new River Chamber. The lock walls are founded on timber piles that are loaded beyond their rated capacity. The downstream guide wall is unstable and has a high probability of failing and obstructing the only operational lock chamber, if the downstream navigation pool is lost.
Project Funding
This project is cost shared 50/50 with the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF) and the General Treasury. The IWTF is a tax levied on the diesel fuel used by the commercial waterways transporters (carriers). The General Treasury portion of the project funding is generated from Federal taxes.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
The FY 2009 ARRA has identified $84 million to continue construction on the Lower Mon project. In June 2009 $17.4M was used to fully fund the construction of the Charleroi River Wall, currently under contract with Trumbull-Brayman Joint Venture. In August 2009 a $28.4M contract was awarded to CJ Mahan of Grove City, OH, to construct the upper and lower guard walls at Charleroi Locks.
Braddock Dam
In June 2002 when Dam Segment #2 was set-down onto its foundation, Act One of the Braddock Dam "In-the-Wet" construction project was completed to rave reviews. For the 1st time in civil engineering history, an inland navigation dam was created using innovative float-in technology, wherein two massive concrete dam segments, fabricated on land, were launched, floated into place, and submerged onto a constructed large diameter drilled shaft foundation.
On July 26, 2001 Braddock Dam Segment #1, weighing 16,800 tons, was floated out of its casting basin in Leetsdale, PA and into the Ohio River to begin a groundbreaking 27.5 river mile trek. On February 27, 2002 Segment #2, weighing 13,500 tons, embarked on its 27.5 mile voyage. The segments were towed with precision through Dashields and Emsworth Locks on the Ohio River, nearly filling the lock chambers. After passing through what was then Lock 2 on the Monongahela River, the segments were moored at an outfitting pier along the left bank of the River in Duquesne, PA to prepare them to be sunk onto the drilled shaft foundation at the Braddock project site. Their 15-hour trips were major media events in western Pennsylvania. The flotilla – dam segment, 3,300 HP primary tow boat, two assistance tow boats and escort vessels – traveled in the heavily used waters of the Port of Pittsburgh as thousands of on-lookers lined the riverbanks and cheered while others tracked their progress through television and radio updates.
On December 5, 2001 and June 19, 2002, Segment #1 and Segment #2, respectively, were transported to the Braddock Dam site, positioned and set down on their respective underwater foundations. Safely set-down on their foundations, Segments #1 and #2 formed the lower third of the pier bases and overflow sections of the five-bay gated navigation dam. The balance of the dam was constructed from floating plant above the water. The new Braddock Dam became fully operational in April 2004.
The Braddock Dam portion of the Lower Mon project incorporated significant new and innovative business practices with respect to design, construction, procurement and contract management that have received notable interest and endorsement not only with the federal government, but the engineering community as well. The Braddock Dam has been recognized in many engineering periodicals including Civil Engineering magazine. Engineering News-Record named it one of the top 25 newsmakers of the year in 2002. In 2003 the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania honored Braddock Dam as its Project of the Year. In 2004 the project was a finalist for the American Society of Civil Engineers' Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award. In 2005 it received the Civil Engineering Achievement Award from the Pittsburgh Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. And finally, the History Channel's Modern Marvels highlighted the Braddock Dam construction in its 1-hour documentary on the history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Locks and Dam 3 (Elizabeth)
Locks and Dam 3 will be completely removed when one new operational chamber is completed at Charleroi, pool 3 dredging is completed, and the project funded relocations in pool 2 are completed.
Charleroi Locks
The new Charleroi Locks, with both lock chambers 84' wide by 720' long, are an essential component of the "two-for-three" replacement plan that will lower the downstream operating pool by 3.2' after the removal of Locks and Dam 3. This pool lowering, driven by major structural problems at Locks and Dam 3, will result in major impacts to existing Locks 4. Major impacts to Lock 4 include differential loading on the lock walls increasing to unacceptable levels and water depths over the lock chamber sills and struts becoming less than required.
Existing Locks 4 are 73 years old with thin, unreinforced, non-air entrained concrete sections founded on wood piles. Concrete struts were constructed across the floor of the locks to stabilize the walls prior to raising the upper pool by 6' in 1967 when the new gated dam was built. At that time, the up-river Maxwell Locks and Dam were constructed to replace several old middle Monongahela River projects, and a new dam was constructed at Locks and Dam 4 to raise the pool to the new Maxwell project.
There are six facilities upstream of Locks and Dam 4 and all have 84' wide lock chambers. Maxwell Locks, the first upstream project, has twin 720' long by 84' wide chambers. When Locks and Dam 3 is removed, all locks downstream of Locks and Dam 4 will have a 110' wide main chamber. Since the existing chambers at Locks and Dam 4 are each only 56' wide, constructing larger chambers will remove a "bottleneck" from the system that forces the complicated and hazardous process of tow disassembly and reassembly in order to "double lock" typical tows through Locks 4. Larger chambers will provide additional capacity to process traffic. In sum, the plan to construct new and larger locks at Locks and Dam 4 is driven by the age and condition of the existing locks as affected by the planned lowering of the downstream pool and the rise in the upstream pool that was made in the 1960s, and in the benefits of removing a bottleneck (i.e., the last remaining 56' wide chamber) to transportation on the Monongahela River.
Construction of the new locks began in 2002 with a $7.9 million contract to prepare the site by construction of a new access road, bridge and parking areas as well as operations and service buildings. Another contract for demolition of the river lock chamber was awarded in 2003 for $12.9 million. This contract included removing the river chamber lock chamber floor struts, timber and steel piles, and installing stabilizing struts and coffercells to prepare for the eventual construction of the new lock's middle wall within the area of the existing river chamber. Continuing the Lower Mon Project's award winning trend, the design for this contract earned the 2006 Grand Award for Engineering Excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Ohio. The ongoing contract for construction of the new river wall was awarded in 2004. Construction began in the spring of 2005 and is scheduled to be complete near the end of calendar year 2010. Construction of the remainder of the locks will be completed in several phases with the new locks scheduled for completion as early at 2021, with an efficient funding stream.
Relocation of Municipal Facilities
The pool changes associated with the Lower Monongahela River Project will adversely affect many shoreside "Publically owned" facilities. In accordance with the discretionary authority afforded the Chief of Engineers under Section 111 of the River and Harbor Act of 1958, the relocation of these publically owned facilities may be funded by the project, provided they meet certain criteria, not withstanding permit requirements related to navigation servitude. The Lower Monongahela River Project will fund the design and relocation of many municipal facilities along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers adversely affected by the pool changes.
A rail road bridge owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Corporation will not meet the minimum established U.S. Coast Guard vertical clearance requirement of 42.5 feet from normal pool elevation. The Government and the Norfolk Southern Corporation will share in the cost of adjusting the Port Perry railroad bridge to meet the required clearance.
Privately owned facilities, within navigation servitude along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers, adversely affected by the pool changes are to be adjusted at the owner's expense. Facilities within navigation servitude are subject to the provision of Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, which requires facility owner to bear the cost of any adjustments necessary due to changed pool conditions. The Corps of Engineers and the Port of Pittsburgh Commission, in the past, have established a forum to continue dialogue with these affected private owners on likely impacts, technical assistance available from the Corps, and potential sources of non-project financial assistance.
Dredging
The authorized project will maintain a 9 foot deep by 300 foot wide navigation channel between Braddock and Charleroi. No channel dredging is required from Braddock to existing Locks and Dam 3, at Elizabeth. From Elizabeth to Charleroi the pool elevation will be lowered a nominal 3.2 feet. This change in pool elevation (between Elizabeth and Charleroi) will require that the river bottom be excavated (dredged) to ensure a 9 foot deep navigation channel. Dredged material will be placed in a permitted disposal area near Victory Hills, approximately 2 miles south of Donora, PA.
The material to be dredged from the river is comprised mostly of sands, gravels, and coal fines. The material to be placed in the permitted disposal area is NOT contaminated. A rigorous sampling plan was previously conducted and areas of "contamination" were identified, within the navigation channel, have already been excavated and placed in a regulated disposal facility, NOT the Victory Hills location. Additional sampling will be conducted in the future to ensure that the materials placed within the permitted disposal area, near Victory Hills, meets or exceeds the standards established by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Updated: 01-Dec-2011