Cullman Crane Certification Prep for I-65 Road Warriors

Plant work close to home

German supplier REHAU marked 25 years in Cullman in 2021 with a $50 million expansion for exterior polymer parts on Mercedes-Benz SUVs, and in August 2024 it opened a $66 million paint line tied to a contract for Mercedes electric vehicle parts. The plant now employs more than 800 people. Japanese stamping supplier Topre has also grown here, with an $80 million expansion announced in 2018 to add a production line for Nissan Altima parts, and plumbing products maker Reliance Worldwide received a state grant to expand in the city.

Projects like a new paint line or stamping line mean weeks of setting ovens, booths, conveyors, presses and rooftop air handlers, often inside a running plant. Machinery movers and crane rental crews handle those picks, and they want operators who can work a chart at short radius, riggers who can balance an off-center machine and signal persons who can manage a blind lift through a roof opening.

One card for two metros

Alabama issues no state crane license and no city adds one, so the same accredited certification is accepted in Birmingham, Huntsville, Decatur or back home. Contractors in both metros look for the same proof: a card from an accredited program, an employer evaluation, and qualified riggers and signal persons under 29 CFR 1926.1427, 1926.1428 and 1926.1425. Tennessee runs its own OSHA plan through TOSHA but has no general crane operator license either.

The drive itself has been a job site. ALDOT’s $16.1 million contract with Rogers Group resurfaced I-65 from Hurricane Creek, north of Vinemont, through Morgan County toward the I-565 interchange, with bridge raising and repairs folded in, and a separate planing and sealing job from the Blount County line to Exit 305 is in early engineering. Bridge raising and beam work on an interstate happen at night under lane closures, where a signal person and a tight lift plan carry most of the safety load.

Veteran operators and the five-year clock

Plenty of Cullman operators certified years ago and are coming up on renewal. Certification lasts five years. Recertification means passing the written recert exam, and 1,000 hours of crane-related experience during the period can waive the practical. Chart revisions and newer machine technology can catch a seasoned hand off guard on that written test.

Our mobile crane recertification course fits that situation. Work through it a little at a time between jobs.

Upland ground and a storm-season memory

Cullman County is ridge-and-hollow country, so residential and farm lifts often start on a grade, a gravel drive or the edge of a ditch. Outriggers need level, solid support, and cribbing on a slope takes more thought than on a slab. Red clay loses strength after a soaking rain.

Spring storms here are not abstract. On April 27, 2011, a multi-vortex EF4 tornado with peak winds near 175 mph crossed downtown Cullman, tearing into the courthouse roof and destroying whole blocks around Fourth and Fifth Streets; local reporting counted 69 businesses whose facilities were destroyed. Build a wind and lightning stop point into every lift plan and keep someone watching radar.

• Mobile crane operator, for hydraulic cranes and telescopic boom trucks.
• Mobile crane recertification, for operators near the end of their five years.
• Rigger Level II, for hands who plan plant equipment lifts as well as rig them.
• Articulating crane operator, for builders and suppliers setting trusses and block.