On an emergency building collapse in Washington, Pennsylvania: We are happy that all have been rescued and very proud of our team members for their efforts! "On a personal note I appreciate the efforts and ingenuity of you and your team. We all integrated flawlessly. I cannot express how impressed I am in your commitment to work with us in such a dynamic situation. You and your men should be exceptionally proud of your work yesterday." -Brian Kokkila of PA Urban Search and Rescue Observer-Reporter Articles:
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Hurricane Matthew brought devastation to the Carolinas. Our crew departed immediately to help with the aftermath. Working tirelessly, we met a lot of people putting their lives back together.
To our surprise, Drs. Wright put together this piece in the local paper, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Thank you. We hope everyone impacted is finding calm again. We’re over halfway finished with our week in Florida contest! For those of you who don’t know, Allegheny Crane is offering up a free week at the Holley House in Florida. Every crane lift you complete this year gives you one more point in the drawing. The more crane lifts you book, the better chance you have of winning this week in paradise. We see our continued customers as the most valuable part of this company. If we can make renting a crane that much more fun, why not do it? Winning this contest would be fantastic for any of our customers. Just like that, you’ve won a free week vacation for 8 lucky members of your company. This is perfect for team bonding, and mental therapy. The world is your oyster on those beaches. The property is designed to ensure total peace and privacy. The entire house is surrounded by 30’ high trees so bumping into your neighbor is very unlikely. There is absolutely nothing to get in the way of relaxing and soaking in the Florida sun! The house is equipped with its own dock and entrance to the private beach! That’s of course if you feel like it’s a beach day. If you’re not feeling quite that adventurous, just step out onto porch and enjoy the pristine salt water pool. Perhaps the most wonderful part of the house is the view from the top deck. Nights are best spent watching the sun set over the crystal blue ocean. The possibilities are truly endless at the Holley House. We can wait to see which of our loyal customers is the lucky winner!
1. Safety Safety has always been the top priority for us at Allegheny Crane. We emphasize it as much as possible and at every level of our operation. Of course, out on the job site it is incredibly important. But we believe ensuring total safety for ourselves and our clients goes far beyond just the work on site. Unloading units in our lot, working in the shop, and even just driving to job sites is fraught with potential dangers. Remaining safe in this industry requires complete and constant focus. One of the things that Allegheny Crane is most proud of is our zero TRIR (total reportable incident ratio) which we’ve maintained for 8 years running. We are the single crane rental company on the market that can say that honestly. That doesn’t happen by accident. It is the result of preparation, attention to detail, caution, and the training to execute lifts to perfection. 2. Standards Allegheny Crane can get street closure permits on the busiest streets in Pittsburgh. A lot of our competitors can’t even be cleared for a permit. And even if they can, it will cost them far more than it will with us. This helps keep our bids consistently lower, especially on those larger scale jobs. There is tremendous risk in this business when you hire a contractor. If an accident occurs with a crane that you rented, you are responsible. If the crane company isn’t 100% up to OSHA standards, you are liable. That’s a dangerous situation to be in. We are constantly working to make renting a crane simpler and easier for you. That’s why we put in the time to make sure we are completely up to date and properly certified on every single OSHA code. 3. Customer Relationships The resources of a national company, and the personal service of a small business. That is what separates us from our competition. There are small crane companies out there that go above and beyond for their customers. Unfortunately, there are just certain limits on what they can do. They either have a cap on the largest crane they run, or they simply don’t have the cranes ready when you need them. Allegheny Crane is the solution to this hole in the market. We have a lean, skillful, and passionate team dedicated to making the job as easy for you as possible. We also have all the same resources of a national corporation. We’re bringing the personal part of cranes back! 4. Efficiency Time is precious in the crane world. Wasting it is the number one reason contractors get overcharged by crane rental companies every single day. Allegheny Crane is always searching for ways to save our customers money. The most effective way we do this is by shortening our hours in the crane. This starts with preparation. We explore every possible lift option to find the one that allows the fewest set-ups and minimal interference. The next key to us saving our customers time is providing our own rigging for each and every job. This ensures we are ready to go the second we arrive at the job site. The last, and probably most important part, is that we review each and every lift with our operators beforehand. They know exactly how the lift needs to look before they step foot on site. This way they can get on site, and get going immediately. 5. Loving A Challenge When Kyrk Pyros took over the company 15 years ago, he completely changed the company culture. Kyrk has a can-do attitude. He hates saying we can’t do something and he has passed that winning attitude onto his employees. A lot of crane companies are going to get annoyed at you when you call in with a tricky lift. They are going to say it’s a pain to have to go out and visit the job site before the lift. Allegheny Crane loves tough lifts. It’s yet another important value that separates us from our competition. Kyrk has 30 years of experience in construction, demolition, excavation, and crane rental. He has the extensive knowledge and experience you need to be able to think on your feet. We will work tirelessly to design the perfect lift plan for even your toughest jobs. And you can be absolutely sure we will do it faster and safer than our competition. Allegheny Crane Rental is in a real groove right now. The team is in perfect unity, the shop is getting repairs done efficiently, and our operators are killing it out in the field. From the outside it might seem like running a crane company shouldn’t be much of a challenge. Wrong. There’s a reason there are only a few successful crane companies on the market. This last week we had a particularly diverse and busy week. We were right in the middle of a high-level project with a chemical plant. Despite that, the individual lifts kept coming in. We completed lifts for construction companies, HVAC companies, chemical plants, roofing companies, mechanical contractors and even a tree company. Every lift went over without a single hitch. Tennis Roofing Lift The first lift of the week was for Tennis Roofing Company. They needed some roofing materials hoisted up over two different levels of a roof. The load wasn’t too heavy so we were able to send the 50 ton and swing the jib to the spot we needed. Allegheny Crane is always working to make sure we use the smallest crane while still ensuring total safety. This is where the expertise of our estimators come in. There’s much more to a lift than what shows up on the charts. Anyone can look at a chart. It’s the real world experience that makes an estimator valuable. Using the most efficient crane is the number one way we save our customers money. Southwestern Veterans Center Generator Lift We had a very different type of lift that very afternoon at the Southwestern Veterans Center. The building needed a new set of generators. Instead of a far reach and low weight, this lift had a maximum weight of 22,000lbs. Because we could set up pretty close to the unit, we were able to send another 50 ton to get the job done. Just to be sure everything was as safe as possible, we sent out an extra rigger to the site. This was a worthwhile precaution because we had to use a spreader bar for these units. The spreader bar helps separate the cables at the top of the load so no damage can come to the unit. This unit was nearly 20’ long so the bar was definitely a necessity. In this case, the extra operator did cost more money. But here at Allegheny Crane, we believe that’s worth it if it guarantees total safety and gives our customer peace of mind. Schenley Place Drywall Lift ![]() The last particularly tricky lift was for Burchick Construction who is working on a job in Oakland. They are part of the construction of a brand new seven-story office building within walking distance to The University of Pittsburgh, UPMC, and Carnegie Mellon. Allegheny Crane was called on to lift drywall all the way up to the 7th floor. The tough part was we had to fit it through a window just 5’ tall and 32” wide! There is absolutely no room for mistakes in this situation. Our estimator visited the site the week before and came up with a lift plan that gave the operator as much flexibility as possible. Along with a 40 ton crane, we sent out a set of articulating forks. These attach to the end of the crane’s boom and rotate to the left and right. The operator lifted the material up 95’ feet, rotated the load, and slid it right through that 32" wide window. Allegheny Crane believes in putting in the time to get the job done safer, cheaper, and faster. This is only accomplished when every member of the team is in harmony. The estimator has to know what to do and make sure the operators are completely clear on the lift plan. This can only be done by putting the time in and not cutting corners. Allegheny Crane has a perfect safety record for a reason. Next time you need a crane, no matter how difficult the lift, Allegheny Crane will deliver personal and professional service unlike any you’ve ever experienced! ![]() Allegheny Crane Rental consistently sets the bar for service in the crane industry. Considering how many things can go wrong in the course of a crane lift, this isn’t an easy thing to achieve. It means holding the entire company to a higher standard than the others. Everyone has to be ready to perform their job, without a mistake, at any moment. This doesn’t just happen by accident. The owner, Kyrk Pyros, understands the technical difficulty that comes from running a crane company. When he bought the company 15 years ago, he realized how many challenges he would face, but that didn’t stop him. Through a can-do attitude, hard work, and a focused team, Kyrk has tripled the company’s size and risen to the top of the crane lift industry. Over the years, Kyrk has built his own headquarters for Allegheny Crane Rental, added 25+ cranes to the fleet, and assembled a lean, efficient team for his company. The office is spectacular and a very important part of making sure the cranes go out smoothly. The addition of the cranes has expanded our capabilities and now we can take on virtually any job, especially with our 275 Ton Grove. But this shouldn’t make such a huge difference between Allegheny Crane and its competitors should it? Many of our competitors are large national crane companies. They have the same resources and facilities we do. The difference is the team Kyrk brought together. The team is responsible for Allegheny Crane’s efficiency, safety record, prices, and the personal customer service that you won’t find anywhere else. ![]() The first member of the team and the lift system is Jason Owens. He is the controller at Allegheny Crane and a major factor for why daily operations at the company are so smooth. When customers call us at the office to set up a lift, Jason collects the information for the job site and decides what crane will be best. Jason is a master of organization. Even when we have 10 lifts called in during just a few hours, he doesn’t fall behind or miss a single detail. Unfortunately, you can only do so much over the phone. Allegheny Crane has built up a reputation for taking on any job, especially the difficult ones. Sometimes job sites can be riddled with obstacles and simply require an estimator to visit the site in person. This is where Allegheny Crane’s newest addition to the team, Anthony Zanetta comes in. ![]() Anthony’s day consists of visiting job sites and figuring out solutions to messy lift plans. This takes both a practical and creative mind. Anthony isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and you know he goes the extra mile to make sure there is nothing that might go wrong on lift day. Anthony grew up in the Pittsburgh area and he knows his home well. He's built personal relationships with a large number of Allegheny Crane's clients. Our customers consider him the go to guy when they need a crane lift done. He takes his work very seriously and it's apparent in the results he produces. ![]() After all the job specifications are worked out, Debbie Herrle takes over. Ms. Debbie has been with Allegheny Crane Rental for over 20 years! She has been delivering the top service available since before Kyrk even bought the company. Her role is to decide which operators go out for each job and to be sure they have everything they need to make the lift go smoothly. Ask any of our customers and they’ll tell you Ms. Debbie is the best in the business! Most good companies in this industry have the right cranes. Most have pretty good operators. Most will tell you they have the best prices. At Allegheny Crane, we have all of that but the difference is the team. It’s why we don’t make mistakes. It’s why we use more efficient cranes than other companies. Through hard work and determination, Kyrk has led this team to become the top crane company in the tri-state area! ![]() Kyrk Pyros and the team at Allegheny Crane Rental are constantly working to make your crane lifts safer, faster, and cheaper. There are always new challenges and obstacles to overcome in the crane industry. The team is prepared for this and works in perfect harmony to make sure there are never any mistakes, and that the customer is pleased. Safety is always first. There are a lot of important things that go into a crane lift but safety is king. Our safety record is the part of the company we are proudest of. Our zero TRIR (Total Reportable Incident Ratio) is the result of being meticulously careful at every stage of the process. No other crane company can say they have never had a reportable incident. At Allegheny Crane, we can say that we never have because of the team process before every single lift. The process starts when Allegheny Crane takes your call. We get every necessary piece of information and make sure we know about any potential obstacles. Before we even give an estimate, we design a full proof lift plan that will keep everyone safe. Our estimators use Google Maps to get an idea of what the job site will look like, pull detailed measurements, and to help them with the process of designing a plan. After we’ve given an estimate, we review the number with our customer. Sometimes the customer might be a little unsure about a certain part of the job site and ask someone to come look at it before the crane comes. Our estimators will be on site within a couple of hours to take care of any concerns. All our estimators have their Crane Operator License. They aren’t taking basic measurements. They know exactly what the lift will look like and the most efficient way to do it. In every crane company there are going to be a few people that really know what they are talking about. At Allegheny Crane, every company representative is a professional and a master at their job. We feel our customers deserve nothing but the best so they should never have to worry about the competence of their estimator. Back at the office, the estimator goes over the lift plan with the team and even Kyrk Pyros himself. If the lift is particularly tricky, charts won’t cut it. That’s when we use our virtual lift plan program. 3D Lift Plan allows you to design the entire job site down to the tiniest detail! The program then lets you add the exact same model of crane we plan on sending to the job site. There are no mistakes here, every measurement is exact. Whether it’s the boom length, lift angle, building dimensions, lift weight, lift capacity, or job site obstacles, the program builds it all precisely down to the unit and can tell our estimators if the lift is safe. Many people consider cranes a commodity. Most contractors only look at the price and decide which company to use based on whose is the lowest. We don’t agree with this at Allegheny Crane. Crane lifts are too delicate and filled with potential liability to not take extra care at every step of the process. With Allegheny Crane, you won’t be a nervous wreck come lift day. We make sure every customer is more than satisfied with the lift plans we design. Schedule your crane today and experience what makes Allegheny Crane Rental different! ![]() There are many important factors that go into a successful crane lift. All the job site information has to be known and accurate. The crane has to be inspected, equipped, and driven safely to the site. The operator must be in top form. There is a lot that can potentially go wrong in even the simplest of lifts. Here at Allegheny Crane, we believe that shouldn’t be the customer's burden. This a technically difficult industry, Kyrk Pyros knew that when he bought the company. For years, we have been working to streamline the daily operations of the company and make our customer’s lifts easier. Renting a crane shouldn’t keep you up at night or take hours out of your day. When you come to Allegheny Crane for your crane needs, there is a certain level of excellence that we guarantee. Our lifts go over smoother, more efficiently, and personalized because of three major reasons. First, Allegheny Crane responds to our customers needs immediately. Customers call into the office every day asking for an estimator to take a look at their job site. As long as it’s not too late, a trained Allegheny Crane estimator will be out on the site that very day. The second reason Allegheny Crane is better prepared and more thorough in our lifts is that we have the resources of one of the large national crane companies, with the personal touch of a small business. This starts with our fleet. We have a 6 Ton Spyder Crane that will fit through the door of an office all the way up to the mighty 440 Ton Grove. Whatever your crane needs may be, Allegheny Crane has the best equipment for the job. Another way our company combines important elements of both a big and small company is the lean corporate team at Allegheny Crane. The team is small and tight enough that our employees know the customer and their specific personal needs. Many of our employees have been here for 10 years or more and know the industry like the back of their hand. The last reason our lifts are easier for the customer is our new system for scheduling cranes. Now when you visit the Allegheny Crane Rental website, you immediately have the option to begin setting up your lift. You go through the process slide by slide with an intuitive program helping you along the way. Within less than a minute you can schedule your crane lift right from your smartphone! An Allegheny Crane associate will then be with you in a very short time to confirm and that’s it. Booking your crane has never been easier. It’s about time it was made simple, schedule your crane today! Allegheny Crane Rental’s company culture is strongly formed around our can-do attitude. A key part of our brand and what sets us apart from the competition is our eagerness to figure out the correct solution to a problem. The owner, Kyrk Pyros, has trained his employees to consider every possible option. Since day one, Allegheny Crane has put in the extra work to create a strong lift plan. When other companies back out because a lift starts to look impossible, we apply the time and expertise needed to make sure we know every scenario.
![]() Inside the building, people attached ropes to the unit and slowly pulled it in. Because this lift was in a central part of town and the building was so tall, safety was even more of a concern than usual. But the crew managed to hoist the unit inside and reattach the windows without a hitch. In March of this last year, a plane from the Butler airport suffered a messy landing and ended up in a ditch. The only passenger at the time was the pilot who thankfully, was not hurt. The airport needed a crane to lift the plane to safety. This was an especially delicate lift because of how malleable the aluminum that makes up a plane is. Allegheny Crane found the safest and most efficient way to lift the plane to safety. Kyrk Pyros was even in the field that day, guiding the operator. The plane was a mess after the crash, but Allegheny Crane was able to complete the lift without any further damage to the aircraft. A few months ago, we were called by a tree removal company here in Pittsburgh. They had been hired by the homeowner to take out a tree that posed a potential danger to the house. After arriving at the job site, we realized how steep the driveway we planned to set up on was. It was a gravel driveway with deep trenches where our outriggers needed to rest. After talking with the owner of the tree service, we learned that Allegheny Crane wasn’t their first call. The owner had started with one of our competitors. After their estimator came out to look at the job site he decided there was no way they could get one of their cranes to set up on the rough terrain. It was a grim job site, but our estimators don’t quit very easily. We came up with a lift plan and accompanied the operator the next day to make sure everything went over well. We used half outriggers on one side of the crane and full on the other. We had to even out the steep hill with our angled mats, and after about an hour of setup time, we were ready to go. The lift went over without a hitch and we were out of there in a few hours. A major part of why our customers come to us instead of the competition is that we put in the time before a lift happens. We consider every option and make sure there is nothing that could potentially go wrong. Clients come to us all the time with lifts that other companies have turned down. This can be because there are too many obstacles or there simply isn’t enough room for the crane. But we here at Allegheny Crane won’t accept that until we look at every single safe possibility. Kyrk Pyros knows cranes. The reasons for a company’s success always begins at the top. Ever since Kyrk took control of Allegheny Crane Rental 15 years ago, he has worked hard to plant his work ethic and attention to detail in the culture of the company. Kyrk has spent time as a crane operator. He knows exactly what he’s talking about when discussing an upcoming project with a client. He doesn’t just look at a chart and get a vague idea of what the lift will look like; there is no guessing. He’s been there in the field, running the show. He knows exactly how it will look and what the best lift plan option is. A good company culture starts with its owner. That influence is why Allegheny Crane has made such an impact in the Pennsylvania crane market. Kyrk has mentored his estimators and passed on those skills. Before they go into the field, Kyrk requires every estimator to get their Crane Operator License (CCO). He does this whether they plan to operate a crane or not. This is just one of the ways Kyrk puts in the time and training to be sure his employees are experts in their field. Kyrk training his estimators to this extent ensures they not only know the limits and appropriate lift strategies for our cranes, but also that they have a realistic visual image of the lift in their head as soon as they step on site. When a customer calls on us to take a look at the specifics of a job site before a lift, they know the person visiting the site will be a professional who isn’t thinking in the abstract. The estimator knows everything from the best place to set up the crane, to what type of rigging should be brought on site the day of. Kyrk demands the highest level of performance from himself. Because of that, his employees observe and admire his work ethic. It’s a fun company to be a part of, the people working there really feel like they are all on one close team. “Be a team player,” said Kyrk. “I don’t ask anyone to do anything that I can’t or won’t do on a daily basis. Nobody works for me, they all work with me. That’s a major key to running a successful company.” When Allegheny Crane takes on a job, the entire company demands excellence at every stage of the job process. From the moment we take a call, to the second we drive off site, Kyrk and his employees work hard to achieve safety, detail, and efficiency. |