It might be a good idea to get some practice before operating a tower crane … even via a video game.

Equipment operators go through years of apprenticeship and training before becoming full-fledged journeymen. For those getting started, Operating Engineers Local 701 has a new tool: a video simulator that realistically portrays jobsite activities including tower crane and bulldozer operations. The nearly 3,800-member union invested $293,000 in the simulator.

The group plans to train apprentices on the simulator, and take it on the road to high schools throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington for recruitment purposes.

For the Operating Engineers, investing in the pricey tool made sense given that it can be used for both training and recruitment.

“It’s an exciting time,” said James “Jimbo” Anderson, Local 701’s business manager and financial secretary. “Everybody’s talking about an aging workforce, right? We have to invest in our apprentices.”

The simulator was manufactured by CM Labs of Montreal, Quebec, and delivered last month to Local 701’s training center on rural land near Canby. The tool is transported inside a trailer that can be pulled by a pick-up truck, and then must be assembled each time. Assembly takes time; five 55-inch monitors must be unboxed and tightly fit together.

The result is a simulator that operators praise for its realism. In a demonstration of the tower crane program, operators moved equipment, dealing with simulated wind, rain and snow. Another person can appear on a video screen to give hand signals that are piped into the simulation. The unit offers audio feedback, and the chair shakes if the crane operator hits a building.

The simulator offers the opportunity to put apprentices through a low-stakes training, where errors don’t cost money or lives.

“When you can put someone in a no-pressure situation, it’s amazing,” said Terry Casey, a former crane operator who works as Eastern Oregon business agent for Local 701.

For contractors, the simulator offers a chance to hire better prepared operators.

“That’s been a long time coming, and we really look forward to our apprentices training on that,” said Jonelle Anderson, director of marketing for NessCampbell Crane + Rigging.

A portion of wages paid to operators goes toward training, so NessCampbell helped pay for the simulator.

“It can provide them with a variety of different equipment without having to purchase that training equipment for their training facility,” Jonelle Anderson said.

The Operating Engineers are working to recruit a diverse and capable workforce during a time of widespread labor shortages in the construction industry. The number of apprentices the union can bring on is tied to the number of journeymen it has in the field. So the more workers it has, the more apprentices it can hire.

Local 701’s Anderson said he got more than 200 apprenticeship applications last year and hired about 40.

“We need smart, tough people to do this work, so we’re looking for that smart, tough kid,” he said.

In addition to high schools, union representatives have visited middle schools to start the recruitment process early. And it’s not just kids – some apprentices start in their 40s. Local 701 gets recent high school graduates, single moms and even parents signing up after hearing about apprenticeships through their children at school, James Anderson said.

“We sit and listen, we talk to them, we feel out what their skills are,” he said.

To recruit women, James Anderson often brings along Amanda Stevenson, a Local 701 dispatcher who formerly operated tower cranes and drilling rigs.

Wages are set at 80 percent of the journeyman rate, which ranges in 2020 from $36.55 to $56.22 an hour depending on role.

The Operating Engineers union is trying to stay ahead of the curve of construction industry practices. The union is offering training to certify drone pilots in the expectation drones will play a greater role in future construction projects.

James Anderson said the simulator, which is wrapped in photos of construction sites including Broadway Tower as well as an American flag motif, will be a common sight in the region.

“We’re trying to hit every high school there is in Oregon and Southwest Washington,” he said.

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After standing vacant for over a decade, Kellogg Middle School in Southeast Portland was finally demolished in 2018.

Now, a new $60 million Kellogg is rising on the same site, at 3330 S.E. 69th Ave. This week, crews from general contractor Todd Construction and NessCampbell Crane + Rigging placed the first of 27 concrete tilt panels that will form the backbone of the new school’s gymnasium and auditorium.

“PPS is hoping that this becomes a model for our middle schools,” Portland Public Schools spokesman David Mayne said on Wednesday. “These walls here are preformed walls; they were poured over the last few weeks and now (crew members) are attaching cable lifts and raising them up. We started yesterday, and these are the very first walls going up at the new school.”

Designed by Oh planning+design, architecture, the new middle school will have roughly 110,000 square feet spread across three stories. A T-shaped configuration will be used, with the gym and auditorium forming the base of the T and the classroom wing serving as the crossbar. Administrative and other common space will form the stem.

Underground utilities as well as gymnasium and commons footings and foundation slabs have all been completed. This week, the concrete tilt wall forms were removed and the walls were lifted into place for the new auditorium and gymnasium.

“The gymnasium and the stage area is the only section that has the concrete tilt panels,” Todd Construction superintendent Monte Carothers said. “The rest of the school is all structural steel and metal stud framing.

The weather has so far been advantageous for the project team, Carothers noted.

“So far, we’ve had a mild fall … and we’re very fortunate to get that,” he said. “But we know with the extended forecast that things are changing.”

Meanwhile, half of the forms and concrete pours for learning suites building footings are done, while excavation for remaining footings is wrapping up. Final excavation and decommissioning of existing underground drywells and debris piles also has been performed.

Construction is expected to finish by the end of 2020, with the new school scheduled to open in fall 2021, according to Portland Public Schools.

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Two years after voters in the Gresham-Barlow School District approved a $291 million capital construction bond, construction work is in full swing on several of the district’s large projects.

Major expansions are taking place at Gresham and Sam Barlow high schools, while North Gresham Elementary and East Gresham Elementary schools are being entirely rebuilt.

Both elementary schools are being constructed using concrete tilt walls, which workers were busy installing last week at East Gresham Elementary School. Carpenters and laborers with general contractor Bremik Construction teamed with crews from NessCampbell Crane + Rigging to hoist the concrete panels into place.

Bremik Construction broke ground on the project last March and remains on schedule to finish the new two-story campus with capacity for 500 students in time for the start of the 2019-20 school year. The project will replace the original school, which opened in 1954, with a new 76,000-square-foot facility containing 24 classrooms, seven specialized learning rooms and several flex spaces for learning and collaboration. A media center, music room, cafeteria, covered outdoor play space, gymnasium and parking will also be included.

“Right now we’re just tilting the concrete panels and walls,” said Grant Lang, Bremik’s project superintendent. “We’re welding the panels to the footings and together and we’re setting up steel.”

In addition to wall installation, crews are busy prepping to install joists, decking, and wide-flange beams for the building’s second floor.

Subcontractors working on the project last week included Volt Electric, Steel Erectors Northwest Inc., A-Line Concrete Cutting, Goodfellow Bros. Inc., and Unobtanium Ironworks.

The project was designed by DLR Group, and Cornerstone Management is performing construction management.

The new campus will meet four design imperatives set forth by the district, including an improved learning environment with modern classroom and learning spaces, improved daylight and HVAC systems, modern safety and security improvements with secured entry to playfields, playground and the school itself, and improved community interaction with the building.

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