By Alyssa Stahr
Inside Towers Special Correspondent
Since 1993, Skyview has offered crane services throughout the Midwest. Most of its operations occur in Missouri, Eastern Kansas and Southern Illinois. Headquartered in Union, MO, Skyview started its tower division in late 2009, becoming Skyview Construction and Crane, LLC, in 2011. The new company specializes in three areas: crane rental services; tower services involving the entire range of telecommunication equipment; and civil/construction services. The crane division services projects anywhere in the Midwest, while the tower division has established itself as a preferred installer of telecommunications equipment with its record of on-time service to all customers while providing a safe work environment for both customers and employees. The civil/construction division is capable of fulfilling all of the construction requirements project needs, including site preparation, leveling, excavating, trenching, foundation work and more.
Vice President Aaron Lemons joined the company shortly after the tower division was launched in late 2009. Today, most of the company’s work is tower-oriented, and less crane related, he said.
The company has four cranes with lift capacity ranging in size from 18 tons to 275 tons and a pair of in-house certified crane operators. Along with the crane fleet, Skyview also offers heavy hauling.
“We still do crane work and we do still have cranes, but we’re slowly migrating over to more towers, less crane,” Lemons said. “The crane business is drying up as far as what work is available. So, we started concentrating more and putting more efforts into the tower business. I came here to do that.”
Skyview Tower Services intends to be the preferred installer of a wide range of telecommunications equipment. This begins with the quality of personnel making up the crews. Skyview has 37 employees that operate out of the Union, MO office. It also has a five-acre yard in Villa Ridge, MO, and a warehouse in Lee’s Summit, MO.
Skyview’s commitment to safety is key, with a safety manager who completes training in-house, including fall protection, climber certification and rescue, tower climbing, RF safety training, rigging training, crane signaling, CPR/first aid, OSHA training and environmental awareness training. Every day starts with an on-site safety meeting where a job safety analysis (JSA) is completed with every crew member present. All job tasks are identified and discussed, along with any and all safety hazards that might present themselves. In addition to the daily JSA’s, crews perform weekly toolbox talks regarding a safety topic that pertains to the industry.
“We try to keep as much of a handle on that [safety training] in-house as much as we can, just to control more of it. We have a pretty thick and encompassing safety program,” Lemons said.
Looking forward to the second half of the year, Lemons said that Skyview is hoping to add more crews as the workflow expands. He said things are picking up across the industry, so he hopes to add two more in-house tower crews to the existing five. Skyview has a civil crew that handles concrete, dirt, and electrical work and Lemons would like to add another civil crew.
Additional services include: 24 hour/7 days a week emergency service; tower foundations; shelter/equipment foundations; trenching/excavations; utilities installations; generator delivery and installation; grounding installation and testing; road and compound construction; fence installation; COW (Cell On Wheels) delivery and installation; tower erection and modification; certified welding; tower mapping; fabrication; stealthing; antenna and line installation; sweep testing; site maintenance; and complete site construction.
For more information, visit skyviewcrane.net.
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