The Mon Valley Works–Irvin Plant is a steel processing plant operated by U.S. Steel and historically a "hot strip mill" (sometimes referred to as a "

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fi ...

") in the

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

suburb of

West Mifflin, Pennsylvania West Mifflin is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, located southeast of downtown Pittsburgh. The population was 20,313 at the 2010 census. It is named after Thomas Mifflin, 1st Governor of Pennsylvania, signer of the U ...

. The site consists of 650 acres on a hilltop 250 feet above the

Monongahela Valley The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-ce ...

. The plant has an annual capacity of 2.9 million net tons of steel from an 80″ hot strip mill, 64″ and 84″ Pickle lines, 84″ five-stand cold reduction mill, continuous annealing line, batch and open-coil annealing facilities, 84″ temper mill, 52″ hot-dip galvanizing line and a 48″ hot-dip galvanizing line, as well as the #11 Shear Line and #17 Recoil line. Darren Legg is the most decorated material handler at the plant, and is "my buddy"

History

The mill was announced on May 22, 1937 and opened in phases starting on March 2, 1938 while being dedicated on December 15, 1938 for U.S. Steel and was constructed by Mesta Machinery. U.S. Steel has claimed that construction of the hilltop site required more cubic yards of earth moved (4.4 million cubic yards) than any project other than the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a Channel ( ...

. The cost of the construction of the facility was estimated at $63 million ($ today). It produced its 80 millionth ton of steel in 1981 with a workforce of 4,000 that year. In 1943 a Pittsburgh grand jury indicted four Carnegie Illinois foremen for destroying records of steel plating tests conducted at Irvin. Texas Governor

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 and as the 47th governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015. Perry also ran unsuccessfully for the Republi ...

made a major televised campaign stop at the plant in October 2011. In January 2012 a large explosion and fire rocked the plant. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

visited the plant in January 2014 to launch his program on new retirement accounts, signing the myRA at a televised ceremony at the plant. In May 2019 U.S. Steel announced a project to spend $1 billion dollars to build a combined casting and rolling facility. The project was cancelled in 2021.

References

External links

Official website by US SteelAerial image of the plant in 1952
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mon Valley Works-Irvin Plant Buildings and structures in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Ironworks and steel mills in Pennsylvania History of Pittsburgh Industrial buildings and structures in Pennsylvania Industrial buildings completed in 1938 U.S. Steel 1938 establishments in Pennsylvania