Today's heavy-lifting toolbox is diverse. Technology is constantly improving, making alternative lifting devices more feasible for large-scale modular construction. Below is a sampling of equipment riggers employ on these projects.
PLATFORM TRAILERS: Calling this heavy-haul device a trailer "is selling it very short—it really is a rigging tool," says Jeff Latture, senior vice president at Barnhart Crane & Rigging. Whatever you call them, these modular machines come at a steep cost. Many are imported from Germany, with prices starting at $45,000 per axle for a trailer that requires a prime mover and more than $120,000 per axle for a self-propelled unit. Introduced in the late 1980s, the latest generation of platform trailers features wider axle spacings to allow riggers to transport oversized objects by road with fewer permits. "It is one of the great tools of the last 15 to 20 years," Latture says. "If you didn't have a platform trailer, you couldn't do modular construction."