PITTSBURGH — The Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District has received $140 million in federal infrastructure money to upgrade aging locks and dams and other infrastructure projects on the region's three rivers.

The money is expected to create about 3,000 jobs both directly and indirectly, Col. Michael Crall, district engineer for Pittsburgh, said Thursday.

The money represents just a portion of the overall cost to modernize locks, dams and for other needed projects, which Crall estimated at about $1 billion.

"Every day, we are in a fix-as-fail mode as we try to reduce risk and increase the reliability," Crall said.

But he said he was pleased to get the money. Systemwide, the Army Corps is getting $4.6 billion in stimulus money.

The Port of Pittsburgh is the second busiest inland port and the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers make up a sort of water highway upon which millions of tons of coal, chemicals, metals and other cargo are shipped annually.

Jim McCarville, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh, welcomed the news.

The improvements will mean goods will move along the rivers faster, meaning an annual savings of about $200 million in transportation costs, he said.

The money in the Pittsburgh district will go toward dam safety improvements, lock modernization, critical maintenance on flood control reservoirs, water and sewer projects, toxic waste cleanup and ecological restoration, Crall said. In all, there are about three dozen projects; the district has 23 navigational locks and dams and 16 flood control reservoirs.

Much of the money will be used to build concrete walls at the Charleroi locks on the Monongahela and to stabilize the Emsworth dam on the Ohio.

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.

Crall said more than 95 percent of the work will be outsourced to the private sector and he anticipated contracts would be in place by year's end. Civil engineers, heavy equipment operators, masons, plumbers, carpenters, electricians and biologists are among the jobs that will be needed, he said.

Sen. Arlen Specter was expected to formally announce the funding Friday in Braddock, where locks and a dam are located on the Monongahela.

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On The Net:

Army Corps of Engineers, Pittsburgh district: http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil