Crane and Rigging Project Planning in NYC
Before you book a crane, someone should tell you which one the job actually needs, which permits it requires, and which ones it does not.
You are paying for the plan. Who does the lift is still your call.
What you get
We start with your drawings and a visit to the site. Not photos, not a description over the phone. A licensed Master Rigger who has run picks in this city, standing where the crane has to sit.
From there we go through the scope and the timeline, and we tell you which crane the job needs. Crane selection is not a preference. It comes out of the load weight, the working radius, the ground bearing, and what the access to the site will actually allow on the day. Sometimes that points at a mobile crane, sometimes a tower crane, and sometimes at something smaller than the one you had in mind.
That is rarely a single answer for the life of a job. Jobs change, and the machine that suits week one is often wrong by week nine, so we stay with it and tell you when the equipment needs to change.
Everything we carry for you
Which permits you need, and which you don’t
Everyone in this business will happily file every permit on the list. Filing costs you money each time, and none of it comes back.
Permits do not attach to jobs by default. Each one attaches to a specific condition on your site, and where that condition is not there, the permit is not required. Knowing which line you fall on takes a rigger who has filed these before and watched what the agencies actually push back on.
A job in Manhattan might need a DOB Crane Notice, a DOT crane and boom occupancy permit, an after-hours variance, MTA sign-off if you are working over their infrastructure, and NYPD for the street. Or it might need three of those and not the other two. The difference is real money and several weeks.
DOB Crane Notice
Runs twelve months from the date it was originally filed, not from the day you paid it. Lapse it and you have thirty days to settle up before it expires for good.
DOT crane and boom occupancy
The one you cannot put a date on. Between one week and four, depending on scope, what else is happening in the area, and who else already holds a permit on that block.
After-hours variance
Standard construction hours run 7am to 6pm on a weekday. Anything outside that needs a variance, filed at least three business days ahead.
Street closure
Filed with DOT and coordinated with the precinct. Often the difference between a clean pick and a truck that cannot get into position.
MTA and Transit Authority
Needed where the work sits over or beside their infrastructure. Start these early, because they do not move to your schedule.
NYPD coordination
For closures and traffic control on the day. Handled alongside the DOT filing rather than as an afterthought.
Planned by a Master Rigger who has done the lift
Expediters file paperwork and have never operated a crane. Engineers seal lift plans and have never had to get a machine down a street with cars parked both sides.
A Master Rigger license is not a filing registration. The Department of Buildings issues it, and holds the license holder responsible for the safety of the lift itself.
Daniel Berkman holds New York City Master Rigger license #214. You are welcome to check it against the Department of Buildings records before you call.
You still choose who does the work
To be plain about it: you are paying for expert service, not for a sales call. You can hire whoever you want for the lift.
Use the crane company you already know
Work with your usual supplier, or put the scope out and take the best number. Nothing here ties the lift to us.
The recommendation is unbiased
We do not have a machine sitting in a yard that needs to stay busy. When we say the job needs a smaller crane, that is the only reason we are saying it.
The plan is yours either way
If the work does come to us, good. It is not the point, and it is not a condition.
What it costs to get this wrong
A DOB stop-work order does not pause your costs. The crew is still on the clock, the crane is still on rate, and the schedule you sold your client does not move because a permit was filed wrong.
A violation is written to everyone named on the job, not only whoever made the mistake. So one filing error is not a five thousand dollar problem, it is five or six of them landing at once, and you are the one explaining it to your client.
You go back in the queue behind everyone who got it right the first time, and in this city that queue is measured in weeks.
Nobody shuts you down. You just booked a crane bigger than the job needed and paid for that capacity every day it sat there.
None of it is dramatic. It happens constantly, and almost all of it gets decided before anyone turns a wheel.
A recent example
We did this for Raptor, a New York concrete contractor, on jobs where we were also completing the crane work. Drawings first, then the site, then the crane selection, then every filing that job needed across DOB, DOT and the street.
What it bought them was simple. They knew the equipment was right before it arrived, the permits were in hand before the date, and there was one number to call when something changed. It took the crane and rigging scope off their project management instead of adding to it.
The only difference now is that the planning stands on its own. You do not have to give us the lift to get it.
What clients say
How it starts
The first things we will ask you
Send the drawings and the date. During working hours you will hear back inside an hour.
Crane and rigging planning questions
Do we have to give you the crane work?
We already have a crane company lined up. Can you still help?
How is this different from a permit expediter?
How quickly can you start?
Which agencies do you deal with?
Talk to us about the project
Send the drawings and the date, and we will tell you what the job actually needs, which permits it takes, and which ones you can leave alone.