Inside a Pittsburgh plant there is usually no room for a crane — a roof overhead, live equipment either side, and a floor that has to carry the load the whole way. That is where heavy lift rigging takes over: hydraulic gantries, jacks and cribbing, and skid tracks that move the heaviest pieces in the building without a hook.
Quick answer: Badass Logistics provides heavy lift rigging in Pittsburgh, PA and the surrounding metro. We lift, jack, skid, and set heavy equipment with hydraulic gantries, jacking and cribbing, and skid systems — the methods for loads a crane can't reach, can't set up beside, or isn't allowed inside. Our crews work across Pittsburgh and nearby Pennsylvania metros, and moves between facilities run as project freight under the same plan — usually quoted the same day. Call (307) 284-1332.
A crane needs open sky, outrigger space, and ground that can take the bearing. Most heavy equipment in Pittsburgh sits where none of that exists — under a bay roof, in a pit, behind a column line, or in a building the load has to roll into. In Pittsburgh's steel & Marcellus energy equipment plants, the way a heavy piece moves is usually up a few inches, along a planned path, and down onto its set point.
Badass Logistics plans those lifts from the load data out: weight and center of gravity, the lift points the builder allows, floor capacity along the route, and the headroom at every stage. We set hydraulic gantries where the piece has to go up, jack and crib it where it has to come off a truck or a foundation, and skid or roll it where it has to travel. When there is room for a crane, the crane lift and the inside move go into one plan. Jacking and skidding, explained →
The buildings decide the method in Pittsburgh. The stock here is older multi-storey brick mill buildings in the river valleys with narrow street access, steep grades and limited crane clearance, which is why so many heavy pieces move under a gantry or on skid track rather than on a hook. The heaviest loads in the metro are steel rolling and forming equipment, CNC machining centers, welding and fabrication equipment, and material handling cranes — each one planned from its weight, lift points, and the floor under it.
Pittsburgh, PA runs on steel & Marcellus energy equipment, and almost none of it stays put. Same crews and the same heavy lift rigging standards across the region:
The loads that need these methods are the heaviest and most awkward in the building. Typical Pittsburgh heavy lifts include:
That equipment serves Pittsburgh's steel and metals fabrication, natural gas equipment manufacturing, and robotics and advanced manufacturing, where a lift usually happens beside machinery that keeps running. Most of our jacking and gantry work here lands in the Mon Valley steel corridor along the Monongahela River, the Neville Island industrial district, and the Findlay Township industrial area near Pittsburgh International Airport.
Loads lifted and traversed under roofs and inside bays where a crane cannot set up across the Pittsburgh metro.
Heavy pieces raised off trailers, foundations, and pits in controlled stages across the Pittsburgh metro.
Loads moved along engineered skid tracks or on rollers to the set point across the Pittsburgh metro.
Equipment lowered onto anchors, soleplates, and foundations to the layout across the Pittsburgh metro.
Plenty of Pittsburgh jobs start and finish on one floor. The rest have to travel — to a new building across the metro, a sister plant down I-76, I-80, I-81 and I-95, or a facility in another state. We don't hand that part off. It runs as project freight inside the same plan: machines crated or prepped on site, loads sequenced to the rig-out, transport through our licensed broker and carrier partners with dedicated capacity for bigger moves, and our crew waiting at the destination to set it.
The heaviest pieces bound for Pittsburgh often arrive by rail or water before they ever reach a road. Served by CSX and Norfolk Southern, with Norfolk Southern's Mon Line running the length of the Monongahela River corridor. The Port of Pittsburgh spans more than 200 miles of navigable waterway across the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, moving bulk cargo including steel, coal and chemicals by barge. Getting a load off a railcar or a barge and onto a trailer is jacking and cribbing work in its own right, and it goes into the same plan as the set at the far end.
Every heavy lift rigging job in Pittsburgh, PA is quoted from the actual work, not a rate sheet. These are the things that move the number — send them with your request and you'll get a real quote back fast:
Photos of the equipment, its nameplate, and the path out of the building save a site visit on smaller Pittsburgh jobs. For bigger moves we walk both sites before we price anything.
The same Pittsburgh crews handle every kind of industrial rigging. If your job looks more like one of these, start here:
Running a trucking fleet out of Pittsburgh? See truck dispatch for fleets of 4+ trucks.
Working throughout Pittsburgh, PA and the surrounding metro — backed by a nationwide network of 88 locations when a move crosses state lines.
Heavy Lift Rigging throughout Pittsburgh and the industrial suburbs around it — the towns below are where the plants, shops and distribution parks actually sit:
| Town | County | From downtown |
|---|---|---|
| Monroeville | Allegheny County | 11 mi |
| Bethel Park | Allegheny County | 8 mi |
| McKeesport | Allegheny County | 9 mi |
| Cranberry Township | Butler County | 18 mi |
| Robinson | Indiana County | 45 mi |
| Coraopolis | Allegheny County | 11 mi |
| Washington | Washington County | 23 mi |
| Greensburg | Westmoreland County | 26 mi |
| Canonsburg | Washington County | 16 mi |
| Mount Lebanon | Allegheny County | 7 mi |
| Wheeling, WV | Ohio County | 46 mi |
| Plum | Allegheny County | 14 mi |
| New Castle | Lawrence County | 43 mi |
| Allison Park | Allegheny County | 8 mi |
| Murrysville | Westmoreland County | 16 mi |
| West Mifflin | Allegheny County | 9 mi |
| Baldwin | Allegheny County | 7 mi |
| Weirton Heights, WV | Hancock County | 29 mi |
| Upper Saint Clair | Allegheny County | 9 mi |
| Weirton, WV | Hancock County | 31 mi |
| Steubenville, OH | Jefferson County | 34 mi |
| Wilkinsburg | Allegheny County | 6 mi |
| Franklin Park | Allegheny County | 11 mi |
| Indiana | Indiana County | 46 mi |
Moving across the metro or out of state? See all our Pittsburgh services, Heavy Lift Rigging across Pennsylvania or get a quote.
We run heavy lift rigging in metros across Pennsylvania — pick the nearest crew:
Most Pittsburgh jobs don't stop at one service. The crew that rigs a machine out is the crew that manages the move and sets it back down — so you're dealing with one company from the disconnect to the re-level, not three subcontractors pointing at each other.
Machine has to come off the floor, through the door, or onto a pad before it travels? That's the rigging side of the same Pittsburgh crew.
Pittsburgh industrial rigging →Presses, compressors, generators, full production lines — disconnected, rigged, hauled, and re-leveled across Pittsburgh as one accountable job.
Pittsburgh machinery movers →Machine tools are instruments, not freight. VMCs, lathes, and grinders moved on air-ride and squared back to the builder's spec in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh CNC machine moving →Moving the whole floor instead of one machine? Phased teardown, sequenced loads, and reinstallation planning for Pittsburgh plants.
factory relocation in Pittsburgh →In Pittsburgh we also run riggers, machinery movers, CNC movers, and plant relocation, plus project freight for the jobs we rig — or see every service we offer in Pittsburgh.
The same Pittsburgh crew also handles millwright services, machinery removal, crane and rigging services, and machinery loading and unloading.
Specialty rigging in Pittsburgh: chiller and HVAC rigging, transformer and generator rigging, MRI and medical equipment rigging, and lab equipment moving.
Tell us what's moving and where. We'll route the nearest crew and quote it fast.
Get a Pittsburgh Heavy Lift Quote