"A PE stamp is probably going to be required on all nuclear lift plans," Yates speculates on the outcome of the suit. The benefit of modular construction, he adds, "is that you can build it faster. The bad news is, if you drop that piece, you can wipe out your whole project." Bigge officials declined to comment.

Large cranes are not the only tools in today's heavy-lift toolbox. When lifting the Seattle TBM, Barnhart used a modular lift tower equipped with strand jacks, which is not new technology but is becoming more reliable. These and other heavy-lift devices are enabling modular construction to grow bigger and more complex.

"A lot of R&D is going into methodology as well as equipment," explains Bryan Pepin-Donat, contracts director for Lampson International LLC. "Computers are now mainstream in all kinds of lifting and moving equipment, and they make the tasks easier to manage, but it is the task itself which is changing."

Accelerated bridge construction is just one example of how rigging tools have enabled new kinds of modular lifts. In the mid-1990s, American hoisting firms began investing in European platform trailers, which spread out large loads and make them suitable for road transport.

Transportation owners soon took notice and began using these tools for rapid bridge construction. Last year, Belgium-based Sarens set a world record in Chicago when it rolled in and set a 394-ft-long, 2,200-ton prefabricated railroad truss using self-propelled modular transporters. Newer SPMTs spread axle loads wider to address highway restrictions, but there is a caveat, says Stan-Lee Kaderbek, senior vice president at Chicago-based Collins Engineers. "When you are moving an entire viaduct, you are introducing new loads [to the structure]," he says. "Designers have to be sensitive to that."

Some things may never change. As more projects incorporate modular lifts, the tradespeople working in the background rarely receive credit. "I wish people thought of us when they flicked on that light switch, turned on the tap or rode the elevator to work," says one supercrane operator. "But they don't."