Boone County Operators: Prep for Freight, Factory and Highway Lifts

Plant floors and die-cast machinery

The Harrison Regional Chamber has described a manufacturing base with eight global manufacturers among the area's fourteen larger employers. Pace Industries, a die-casting company that began in Harrison, was long one of the names most often listed, though it announced in February 2026 that its Harrison plant would close. Die-cast machines, furnaces and trim presses are dense, heavy and top-heavy, and they usually move through a roll-up door onto a prepared foundation.

Those moves combine crane picks with skates, jacks and gantries, so the rigger's job is often bigger than the operator's. Knowing how to estimate weight from drawings, find the center of gravity on an uneven machine and pick the right sling hitch is the core of our Rigger Level 1 and Rigger Level 2 material.

Terminals, warehouses and the hospital

FedEx Freight's Harrison facility has grown over the years; one expansion report put it above 300,000 square feet. Tilt-up walls, steel joists and rooftop units on buildings like that call for mobile cranes and a signal person who can manage several trades on one site. North Arkansas Regional Medical Center, a nonprofit hospital in Harrison with clinics across the region, generates its own construction and equipment work. We don't speak for either employer.

US 65 and Crooked Creek

• ARDOT plans to widen about two miles of US 65 between Industrial Park Road and Highway 7, with drainage, intersection and sidewalk work; the Federal Highway Administration issued a Finding of No Significant Impact in August 2025
• An ARDOT environmental review approved in 2021 covers replacing the Highway 65B bridge over Crooked Creek in Harrison
• Bridge and culvert work like this needs operators who can handle beam picks near water and traffic, and riggers who can plan them

Hills, hollows and the weather

Harrison sits in a valley ringed by Ozark ridges, and the Buffalo National River country lies just south. Job sites can be sloped, rocky and reached by tight two-lane roads, so the setup position is often dictated by the terrain rather than by the ideal radius. Spring storms, summer heat and occasional winter ice all affect scheduling. Flash flooding along creeks after heavy rain is a real concern for any setup near a waterway.

Getting certified from Harrison

Arkansas does not license crane operators; federal OSHA, through its Little Rock Area Office, covers private employers. For construction, operators must hold accredited certification and be evaluated by the employer under 29 CFR 1926.1427. Our requirements guide explains the rest.

Take the written test by Online Proctored Testing, at a test center or at an event; plan the hands-on practical at an accredited site through the certifying body. Springfield, Missouri, is roughly two hours north on US 65, and Little Rock is around three hours south.