55
TON
55-Ton Class
The right size for HVAC units, hot tubs and spas, beams, and tight residential or commercial sites where a bigger crane cannot set up.
Crane lifts and commercial steel buildings for Renton job sites, from the company that owns the cranes and erects the steel.
Westmore lifts and builds on both sides of Renton with one crew and one fleet. Down on the valley floor the work is rooftop mechanical units on distribution roofs, structural steel, and clear-span frames going up on new pads. Up in the Highlands and on the streets above Talbot it is spas, saunas, and equipment flown over houses with no side yard wide enough to carry anything through. The machine, the rigging, and an NCCCO certified operator go out together on every pick, sized from the 55, 100, and 350-ton classes. On the building side, one crew bolts up the frame and closes in the exterior.
Two questions settle a Renton booking before anything else. The first is whether the machine stands inside the property lines or takes part of the street, because right-of-way use is permitted through Development Engineering by how long it lasts, and a street setup also brings a traffic control plan that has to clear review first. The second is height: city code puts an Airport Influence Area over land around Renton Municipal Airport where nothing may penetrate the federal Part 77 surfaces, so boom configuration is a permitting question here and not only a rigging one. The street address, what the piece weighs, the swing the boom has to make, and one photo of the only place a truck could sit are what the lift plan gets built from.
Four kinds of job run across both halves of the city, and on every one of them the class follows from the load, the radius, and the surface under the outriggers.
A package unit or condenser landed on a distribution roof, timed to the hour the mechanical crew has the curb open.
Transformers, vaults, tanks, and steel members set down on industrial parcels where a forklift runs out of capacity.
A spa taken over the roof of a hillside home and set on its pad, with no fence panel or deck rail pulled first.
Commercial frames raised, plumbed, and closed in by the crew that owns the crane standing beside them.
Renton municipal code lays an Airport Influence Area over the safety zones around Renton Municipal Airport and states that no structure or tree may penetrate the FAR Part 77 surfaces protecting navigable airspace. A raised boom is a structure for that purpose. Inside those zones the governing number stops being how much the machine can pick and becomes how far up the boom is allowed to stand.
The federal layer keeps its own calendar. FAA Form 7460-1 wants notice 45 days ahead of the work when the Part 77 triggers apply, and the agency allows up to 90 days to review what comes in, which is longer notice than a mechanical changeout usually gets. Height therefore has to be settled at bid time on any site near the field.
Street work runs on a published clock of its own. Traffic control plans go to the Public Works Transportation Systems Division at least five working days before the crew shows up, and nothing begins until the plan comes back approved. Filing that plan for its own crane work is part of what Westmore does here, so permit navigation sits inside the job rather than landing back on the customer.
This valley collects drainage from the Green and the Cedar, and state geologists map liquefaction susceptibility for exactly this stretch of ground. That pair of facts is why a steel building here gets an engineered foundation and a graded site rather than a standard slab detail, and why outrigger mats get sized to the soil under them instead of to the machine sitting on top.
Westmore erects that steel and can carry the whole job as commercial general contractor, with preconstruction, the trades, the frame, and the exterior finish carried on one contract. The machine standing those columns and the crew bolting the frame answer to one company, so erection and picks share a single schedule.
The other half of the market is infill. Mixed-use and multifamily work in the north downtown core and the Sunset Area gets built on tight lots where the boom works over an occupied building and a lane closure is part of the plan. Send drawings, the parcel address, and which scope is wanted, steel erection alone or the whole building.
A rooftop unit on a Renton distribution building and a spa going over a Highlands house draw on the same three classes, and radius decides between them as often as weight does.
The right size for HVAC units, hot tubs and spas, beams, and tight residential or commercial sites where a bigger crane cannot set up.
The workhorse for steel erection, precast and tilt panels, transformers, vaults, and rooftop equipment on commercial jobs.
Heavy and long-reach picks: generators, large mechanical equipment, and lifts that have to clear a building from the street.
One call covers crane size, the permit, and the schedule. Or send the basics below and we call back within 24 hours.
"Think Seal Team 6 of Crane Work! Westmore was able to scramble, rearrange their schedule and drive a Crane 15 hours across the state to get us out of a jam on Generator set for Walmart, highly recommend these Professionals"
Google review
"Westmore is that perfect balance of cost vs what you get. They self perform their own work creating value there while delivering the project on time and on budget. These guys hustle, they have a great attitude, they're friendly, they never complain... they just get the job done. I would hire them again in a heart beat. This project scope was a building over 20,000 sq ft. They have the expertise to pull it off."
Google review
"The Westmore team is a tight-knit group of professionals who know their stuff. Their communications and teamwork is a joy to watch. They are fast and efficient without sacrificing quality or workmanship. Watching them work is "poetry in motion"!"
Google review
Yes to both cities, and where the machine parks is what fixes the lead time. A pick made entirely on private ground carries no city paperwork before it. A pick that takes part of a Renton street runs on a Development Engineering right-of-way permit, and the city has to approve its traffic control plan before anyone sets up. Tukwila keeps its own desk for the same thing. The street address settles which of the two applies.
Yes. The city permits any private use of its right of way through Development Engineering, and the category depends on how long the use lasts, with the shortest one processed in a business day or two. A traffic control plan written to the state MUTCD goes to the Public Works Transportation Systems Division at least five working days ahead, and work waits until that plan comes back approved.
Yes, on land the city maps inside its Airport Influence Area. Renton municipal code covers the safety zones around the field and states that no structure may penetrate the federal Part 77 surfaces protecting navigable airspace, and a raised boom counts as a structure. Where the federal triggers apply, an FAA Form 7460-1 filing is due 45 days out, so a tight schedule usually points to a shorter boom set closer in.
Radius decides it, not weight. The rating on the load chart drops as the boom stretches out, so what governs is the gap between the pad and the closest legal place to park a truck, plus anything standing in between. Hillside streets above the valley often leave no side yard and no room beside the house, so a photo shot from the sidewalk toward the pad settles the class.
Crane class, working radius, and the hours the machine is tied to the site. A setup that takes part of a lane pulls in the city permit and a traffic control review, and that review moves the calendar as much as the number. Soft valley sediment puts engineered matting under the machine. Send the weight, the radius, and the street address.
Yes. Westmore takes it on as a commercial general contractor, raises the steel frame with its own crews, and closes in the exterior, and the crane division belongs to that same company. Renton reviews new commercial buildings and additions at the city permit center, asks for a pre-application meeting first, and accepts no paper documents: the project name, address, and scope go in by email and a secure upload link comes back.
Tukwila keeps its own permit desk and the Highlands sit well above the valley floor, and every address on this list is inside the area covered here.
Three answers size a Renton job: how heavy the piece is, the reach from the one place a truck can legally set up, and whether that place is private property or a city street.
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