Braddock Locks & Dam
| Braddock Lock and Dam | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Braddock, Pennsylvania and West Mifflin, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°23′27″N 79°51′28″W / 40.39083°N 79.85778°WCoordinates: 40°23′27″N 79°51′28″W / 40.39083°N 79.85778°W |
| Construction began | 1902 |
| Opening date | 1906 |
| Operator(s) | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh District |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Monongahela River |
Braddock Locks & Dam (previously named Monongahela Locks and Dam No. 2) is one of nine navigational structures on the Monongahela River between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Fairmont, West Virginia. Built and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the gated dam and the lock form an upstream pool that is for 12.6 miles, stretching to Elizabeth, Pennsylvania.
Description of Project Features
Braddock Locks and Dam consists of the locks located on the right bank and the newly gated dam, that replaced the nearly 100-year-old fixed-crest dam.
Locks
The locks, built in 1953, consist of two chambers, side-by-side. The land chamber is 110 feet wide by 720 feet long and the river chamber is 56 feet wide by 360 feet long.
New Dam
Construction of new Braddock Dam, started in 1999, was completed in May 2004 using innovative in-the-wed construction techniques. Two prefabricated hollow concrete segments were constructed at an off-site dry-dock and floated into place and set down on a prefabricated foundation system of sheet-pile cut-off walls and large diameter drilled shafts socketed into bedrock. The float-in segments were build with precast wall panels and cast-in-place bottom and top slabs. Weight of the first 333 feet by 104 feet segment was 11,600 tons. Dam segment two, at 9000 tons, measures 265 feet by 104 feet.
The 517 feed wide spillway was equipped with three 110 feet wide by 21 feet high Standard Tainter gates and one 110 feet wide by 11 feet high Water Quality Tainter gate. Each gate is operated by two hydraulic cylinders. All gates were fabricated and assembled in one piece by G&G in Alabama and were barge shipped to the project site. Weight of the Standard Gate and the Water Quality Gate is 438 kips and 286 kips, respectively.
The construction cost of the new dam was approximately $107.4 million.
See also
List of crossings of the Monongahela River
References
- Salamon J., Sehgal C., Karaffa W., "Large Width to Height Ration Tainter Gates at Braddock Lock and Dam", Waterpower 2006.
Bibliography
- Dams of the United States - A Pictorial Display of Landmark Dams. Denver, Colorado: USSD. 2003. ISBN 978-1-884575-61-7.
|first1=missing|last1=in Authors list (help)
- Boyer, Douglas D.; Wiltshire, Richard L.; Tarbox, Glenn S. (2013). Achievements and Advancements in U.S. Dam Engineering. Denver, Colorado: USSD. ISBN 978-1-884575-64-8.