Print this article BRADDOCK, Pennsylvania — Exactly two years ago, U.S. Steel Corporation announced that the company would turn its Mon Valley operations into a key source of lightweight steel for the automotive industry. At the time, local leaders and company officials called the investment “transformational.” Statue of Joe Magarac, a folktale steelworker who could bend steel with his bare hands, in front of the 148-year-old Edgar Thomson Works. (Shannon Venditti / Washington Examiner) It involved a whopping $1.5 billion upgrade to its Mon Valley Works. This included an upgrade of the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, the Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, and Clairton Coke Works, with technology and improvements that would have provided cleaner air for all three communities where the plants are located, as well as good-paying jobs that would have provided prosperity for the region for decades.