Rigger Level II: Exam Prep for Alabama’s Heavier, Odder Loads

Topics in the prep

• Working out a load’s weight from its dimensions and material
• Finding the center of gravity on lopsided or hollow items
• Leg tension when pick points sit at different distances from the balance point
• Spreader bars, lifting beams and equalizing setups
• Turning, flipping and upending loads without shock loading
• Below-the-hook lifting devices and their markings
• Chain hoists, lever hoists and jacks used alongside cranes
• Reading a lift plan from the rigger’s side and flagging problems
• Talking through a pick with the operator and the lift director

Six hundred lifts on one turbine deck

In 2021, TVA replaced major parts of the three low-pressure turbines on Unit 2 at Browns Ferry, near Athens. The utility planned about 600 crane lifts for that outage, with rotors weighing up to 327,888 pounds and inner casings up to 200,000 pounds. Every one of those picks had a weight, a center of gravity and a rigging arrangement that someone had to get right, frequently with odd-shaped parts that don’t balance at their geometric middle.

That is Level II territory. A rotor is long and heavy toward its discs; a casing is a hollow shell. Neither one tells you where to hook it. The written exam tests whether you can reason through that kind of load instead of guessing.

Alabama projects that reward advanced rigging skill

The Tennessee Valley’s aerospace corridor is one cluster. United Launch Alliance expanded its Decatur rocket factory from about 1.9 million to 2.4 million square feet to build Vulcan. Blue Origin opened a 350,000-square-foot engine factory in Huntsville in 2020 for BE-4 and BE-3U production, and those engines are tested on Test Stand 4670 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Tooling, fixtures and test hardware in that world are expensive, unusual and rarely symmetrical.

On the coast, AM/NS Calvert in Mobile County announced an electric arc furnace of about $775 million, sized for roughly 1.5 million tons of slab a year, to feed its hot strip mill. Building and maintaining a melt shop means furnace shells, transformers and ladle equipment, which are heavy, top-heavy or both.

Work the numbers before the test does

Most candidates who struggle with Level II struggle with arithmetic under pressure, not with concepts. Expect to practice:

• Volume times material weight to estimate what a plate, pipe or block weighs
• Balancing moments to locate a center of gravity between two known points
• Splitting a load between legs that attach at unequal distances
• Applying sling-angle factors once leg lengths differ
• Checking whether a spreader or beam is rated for the way it will be loaded
• Accounting for the weight of rigging hardware itself

How Level II fits with OSHA and with Level I

Alabama is a federal OSHA state, so 29 CFR 1926 Subpart CC applies to private construction work here without a state overlay. OSHA calls for a qualified rigger in the fall zone (1926.1425) and during assembly and disassembly (1926.1404), and lets the employer decide who qualifies. Level II gives that decision a documented, outside basis for complex picks.

Your Level II card only stays valid while Level I is current. NCCCO allows both levels to be tested in the same period, and a Level I holder in the last year of that certification can sit for the Level II written in place of the Level I recertification exam. You may pass the written or the practical first; after passing the Level II written, you have 12 months to pass its practical. Written exams are available through Online Proctored Testing, test centers or test events. The practical is always hands-on with an accredited examiner.

Inside the course

Lessons are short and grouped by topic, with practice questions after each so you find weak spots early. The math gets the most repetition. Because everything runs in a browser, a rigging foreman can study between shift meetings on a phone and pick up on a laptop at home. Crews can be enrolled together, and an enrollment advisor answers questions through the form.

None of this replaces hands-on practice for the practical exam. Work real loads with experienced people before test day. If you still need the foundation, start with Rigger Level I.