Corps urges major work on locks and dams

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Federal officials are again urging major work on the locks and dams on Pittsburgh’s three rivers.

The Army Corps of Engineers hosted a tour Friday of the Emsworth locks to highlight preliminary study recommendations calling for complete replacement of the chronically failing locks that channel boats around three dams on the Ohio River northwest of Pittsburgh.

Millions of tons of coal, chemicals, metals and other cargo are shipped annually on the water highway of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers. The locks are essentially water-driven elevators that lift and lower boats so they can pass through dams, which control water levels on the river enabling navigation.

With Emsworth partly out of service for repairs, it was taking towboats 15 or 16 hours to get their coal barges through, a process that normally takes about two hours.

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