Nevada County Crane and Rigging Certification Prep

What gets lifted around Prescott

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas lists a Firestone roofing materials plant, Ragsdale Printing and Flywheel Pies, a frozen pie maker, among Prescott's larger employers. Plants like these need machinery set, rooftop units swapped and press or line equipment moved during shutdowns, usually by a hired crane and a small rigging crew.

Timber is still the county's economic base even after Potlatch closed its Prescott operation in 2008. Log loaders, knuckleboom trucks and portable sawmill equipment show up across the county, and the poultry farms that replaced cotton after World War II bring steady steel-building and feed-bin work.

Inside the EPDM roofing plant

The roofing plant the Encyclopedia of Arkansas lists under the Firestone name is now run by Holcim, which makes EPDM rubber roofing membrane, flashing and seam tape in Prescott and ships it worldwide. Production there goes back to 1984, and company leaders have described it as the largest EPDM manufacturing plant in the world. In 2012 Firestone Building Products cut the ribbon on a $36 million expansion that added 52,500 square feet and about 100 jobs.

Membrane plants run large mixing, rolling and curing machinery on heavy foundations, and expansions or equipment swaps are when outside crane and rigging crews get called in. Much of that work is indoors: jacking and skating machinery into place, lifting with gantries, or reaching through an opened roof with a mobile crane while the rest of the plant keeps producing. Riggers who can estimate weight and find pick points on irregular machinery earn their keep on those jobs.

No state card, one federal rule

Arkansas does not license crane operators, and Prescott has no city card. Construction lifting falls under federal OSHA's Subpart CC, enforced from the OSHA Little Rock Area Office. Under 1926.1427, an operator needs certification from an accredited testing organization plus an evaluation by the employer. Signal persons and riggers have their own qualification rules in 1926.1428 and 1926.1425.

Our Arkansas requirements guide walks through each piece in plain language.

Planning your exams from rural south Arkansas

Written tests can be taken by Online Proctored Testing, at a test center, or at a scheduled event. The practical is a separate hands-on test on a real crane at an accredited practical site, so set aside a day for travel. Prescott sits on I-30 roughly midway between Little Rock and Texarkana, which keeps both metros within a reasonable drive when you look at listed practical dates.

South Arkansas summers are hot and humid, and spring brings severe storms. Wind limits, ground bearing on rain-soaked clay and heat stress on crews all appear in exam material, and they are daily realities here.

Rail runs through Prescott beside the interstate, so some industrial lifts happen near active track. Clearances, flagging and coordination with the railroad become part of the lift plan when that happens.