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  • Rebuilding Resilience: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Restores Flood Protection Project in Pittsburgh’s West End

    When torrential rains hit Pittsburgh’s West End in 2018, the Saw Mill Run surged with more force than the neighborhood had seen in years. Within eight hours, more than four inches of rain funneled down the steep watershed into a narrow urban channel. The storm did not just test the system – it critically damaged portions of the Saw Mill Run local flood-protection project, a 4,717-foot channel built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District (USACE) in 2000 to defend thousands of residents and commuters just across the river from downtown Pittsburgh.

  • Groundbreaking Work Moves Forward at Montgomery Locks and Dam

    Big machines and bigger innovations are hard at work upgrading one of the smallest locks on the Ohio River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Pittsburgh District is going big — literally — at Montgomery Locks and Dam, where one of the region’s most ambitious infrastructure projects is underway: building a new primary lock chamber in place of one roughly half its size.

  • From wear-and-tear to substantial repair: Pittsburgh District extends life of Hannibal Locks and Dam

    Against the backdrop of the Ohio River’s steady flow and the hum of heavy machinery, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District continues extensive work rehabilitating the primary lock chamber at Hannibal Locks and Dam in Hannibal, Ohio.

  • Pittsburgh District clears passage through dam, opens new navigation channel on Monongahela River to industry

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District opened a 100-foot-wide navigation channel for commercial vessels through the center of the dam at Monongahela River Locks and Dam 3 near Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, Thursday, Sept. 5. The first commercial navigation vessel passed through the channel this morning.

  • From analog machines to machines learning: the Pittsburgh District’s nascent relationship with artificial intelligence

    Artificial intelligence (AI) took the world by storm in 2023 when various rapidly-improving text-language models became publicly available. Since then, the human race has delved into the wacky, wild world of AI and faced some pressing questions: how do I trust the content I find online? Is my self-driving car plotting world domination? Will my toaster have a midlife crisis?

  • New commander assumes mission responsibility of Pittsburgh District

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District welcomed a new commander with the symbolic passing of the engineer flag during a ceremony at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Aug. 4, 2023.

  • Woodcock Creek Lake celebrates Golden Jubilee

    “We lived with floods, pretty much every year.” That was the reality for Saegertown Borough Manager Charles Lawrence and many others living in the wake of the frequently flooding French Creek before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District built Woodcock Creek Lake Dam.

  • Is Union City Dam broken? The dry bed reservoir functions just right

    By definition, a dam is “a barrier preventing the flow of water or of loose solid materials such as soil or snow”…so why does Union City Dam sometimes look like there’s no water in it? That contradiction is by design: Union City Dam is the only “dry” reservoir in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District.

  • Headwaters Highlights: Dam Safety Team Conducts Regular ‘Doctor Visits’ to Prevent Flooding Disasters

    The Pittsburgh District dam safety team develops and maintains emergency action plans and works with emergency managers and first responders to ensure communities are safe from potential dam risks or failures.

  • Headwaters Highlights: New Cumberland Locks and Dam

    If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed New Cumberland Locks and Dam in 1839 instead of 1961, it might have been called Vernon Locks and Dams or Cuppytown Locks and Dam, named after John Cuppy, who designed the town and named it Vernon. Instead, the earliest land buyers in Vernon requested Cuppy to name the town after Cumberland, Maryland – and a town was born. But, more importantly, a lock and dam found its name.