Flood Risk Reduction: USACE Pittsburgh District Rehabilitates Historic 1942 Loyalhanna Dam Gantry Cranes

Editor’s Note: The following is from the USACE Pittsburgh District, curated by America’s Engineers for commercial contractor and industry visibility. The original report can be found at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District news repository.

In 1942, the United States was redirecting its steel, machinery, labor, and federal resources toward World War II. Some plans were put on hold, such as extending the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but constructing Loyalhanna Dam remained a priority.

The project was already authorized and underway before the United States entered the war. As Pittsburgh factories downstream worked around the clock producing steel and other materiel, the dam went into operation as part of the region’s growing flood-mitigation system.

The United States was also investing in another piece of wartime infrastructure: pigeons.

It’s not as ridiculous as eight decades of hindsight makes it sound. During the war, the U.S. Army Signal Corps (not the Corps of Engineers) furnished approximately 54,000 pigeons to the armed services, relying on trained birds to carry messages when radios, telephone wires and other communications were unavailable or unreliable.

Some pigeons became decorated heroes. G.I. Joe (the real pigeon) was credited with carrying a message that prevented an Allied bombing and saved troops in Italy.

So, in 1942, Loyalhanna had a newly operating dam, Pittsburgh had a war to manufacture for, and the U.S. Army had pigeons with jobs. Eighty-four years later, the pigeons are no longer on the payroll, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District(opens in new tab) continues operating Loyalhanna Lake in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

During those 84 years, the dam has prevented more than $658 million in flood damage, partly because the dam uses five colossal steel gates to help manage output during high water events. Two 64-ton bridge-shaped machines, called gantry cranes, use hoists and wire ropes to position the gates.

The district is currently rehabilitating the cranes, which have spent more than eight decades exposed to weather, corrosion, and the gradual betrayal of obsolete parts.

But the cranes also attracted pigeons. Many pigeons.

It wasn’t a stray nest tucked in a corner. Pigeons infiltrated the spaces through the machinery-room louvers and established a homestead around moving mechanical equipment, transmogrifying a once-pristine piece of civil infrastructure into something more akin to a biohazard. The contamination complicated access for crews and added an unscheduled layer of work to a project already contending with lead paint, asbestos flooring, aging electrical systems, and machinery positioned roughly 65 feet above the dam.

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The cranes had become flood-control equipment, historic machinery, and an avian HOA under one roof. By Kardashev-scale standards, the pigeon kingdom was squarely a Type 0 civilization, but it could exploit the energy resources of one parking lot and terrorize anything carrying bread.

Until the local food chain intervened.

“There was a hawk, and he scared away the pigeons for a while,” said Wayne Carney, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District civil engineer managing the project. “But now the hawk is gone, and the pigeons are back.”

For a glorious moment, nature had supplied its own autonomous pigeon-abatement system requiring no procurement package whatsoever. However, responsible infrastructure strategy is not based on a single hawk’s continued cooperation, so the district modified the rehabilitation contract to include barriers designed to keep pigeons away from the equipment.

It is one modest part of a much larger effort to extend the service lives of two machines that are older than six constitutional amendments. The gates act as an additional contingency to help the district manage the reservoir during high-water events, making the cranes an important part of the region’s flood-control system.

Sievert Electric (opens in new tab) received the rehabilitation contract in December 2024 through a 100 percent small-business set-aside. The contractor mobilized in April 2026 and began with Crane 2, removing equipment from the operator cab, electrical components, mechanical systems, wire ropes, and other interior hardware.

There was a lot of painting to do.

Each crane has roughly 16,000 square feet of painted surface. The cranes are always on top of the dam, ready for use, so they acquire a fair amount of wear and tear. After more than three decades of weather exposure since the previous major paint work, much of the coating had corroded, rusted, or begun flaking. In 2026, the contractor removed the lead-based paint from Crane 2, stripped the steel to bare metal and applied a modern epoxy coating designed to resist corrosion.

The contractor also removed asbestos-containing floor panels from the operator cab because machinery built in 1942 sometimes used materials later generations learned not to inhale.

The coating work is not cosmetic. Paint protects the steel beneath it, and neglected corrosion eventually causes section loss, holes and water infiltration. At that point, maintenance work becomes reconstruction work, and the bill accrues.

“Catching this maintenance opportunity as early as possible and making sure there’s no section loss in the steel is a big deal,” Carney said. “We’re avoiding other maintenance issues that come from letting the coatings decay.”

The project also replaces the cranes’ aging wire ropes and brakes. The original brake manufacturer is no longer in business, complicating the otherwise simple task of obtaining replacement parts from a company that has ceased participating in commerce.

As part of the project, electrical systems will receive an equally thorough overhaul. Crews will install new control panels, power distribution equipment, variable-frequency drives, lighting, and operator consoles equipped with joysticks.

The rebuilt cabs will receive steel flooring, insulated walls, new windows and doors, heating, and ventilation. A projecting window and closed-circuit television system will give operators better visibility during gate movements.

“The controls were getting antiquated,” Carney said. “New controls were definitely needed to bring them up to today’s operational acceptance criteria.”

The cranes move across the top of the dam via rails, but if the brakes are disengaged, Carney said a five-person crew can push a crane across the dam by hand.

When the rehabilitation is finished, the cranes will retain their original purpose but perform it with modern controls, renewed mechanical systems, protected steel, and considerably fewer pigeons.

Crews expect to complete installation, testing, and commissioning for Crane 2 by the end of 2026. Work on Crane 1 is expected to follow in 2027.

This article was originally published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the title, “A Tale of Two Cranes: Pittsburgh District Rehabilitates 1942 Flood Mitigation Machinery.” Reposted with permission.

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