STORY WITH VIDEO INCLUDED.

CHICAGO -- In a city like Chicago, summer is often thought of as the "construction season" and 2018 is no exception.

But what most of us know about construction, and what is going on with these projects, is from outside the metal fences that surround them for years on end.

So WGN's Julie Unruh grabbed a hard hat and a vest to make the trip straight to the top of one of the most notable builds going on in the city right now.

At Vista Tower, 400-plus employees of McHugh Construction are building the 1,100-foot skyscraper.

The guy at the bottom, working with the guy at the top -- the very top -- is the crane operator.

"A tower crane operator is in a really high position of trust," Michael Meagher, senior VP at McHugh Construction, said. "When they are coming in with cages and rebar, or a conduit or post tension cable, it has to be dropped precisely and strategically and in a safe manner."

He added: "I think everything is notable and tricky about being a crane op. It is a very tough position with a lot of stress."

On the day WGN visited the Vista site, the crane was 71 stories above Upper Wacker Drive. The equipment alone weighs 500,000 pounds, carries a load up to 29,000 pounds and it dances above the entire project, not to mention the city, for 12 hours everyday.

Meagher took the WGN team to meet the guy behind the crane controls, and see things from his perspective.

First, an elevator ride to the 59th floor. Then, an old-fashioned climb, step by step, rung by rung, to the 65th floor. Up there on the deck, a beehive of activity.

"It’s hard work, but you look around this deck, hard work, but plumbers, electricians, iron workers, HVAC people, cement finishers, working in concert just to make just this deck happen," Meagher said.

Above them all, the guy who works alone answering to everyone’s needs below for hours on end. If you want to be a crane operator, you need to be methodical, cautious and calm as you operate one of the most critical pieces of equipment on site. To meet him, means hoofing it back down to the 54th floor before beginning the ascent up to the crane operator’s cab on the 71st floor.

"It’s a different world up here," crane operator Dominic Lodato said. "You have 40 to 80 mph winds, zero visibility, snow, rain."

In his 16 years as a crane op, Lodato and his counterparts have seen it all. One retired McHugh crane operator even published a book showing what you might see 1,000 feet in the air. Up there, the wind is their greatest challenge. They keep Advil handy, always have snacks within an arms reach and they learn “to hold it.”

"That is the most frequent question I am asked, 'How do we go to the bathroom?'" Lodato said.

The answer: carefully. Two empty bottles are the ticket to relief 71 stories up.

Mike Femali, is also Lodato's relief. They split the 12 hour shift everyday. For him, the job as a crane operator was a calling.

"Prudential building was the first job my dad took me up. I was 8 years old. My first time up in a tower crane and Iknew from then on that was what I was going to do," Femali said.

Again, trust and safety take center stage. Crane operators swing the boom by largely listening to co-workers instructions below. The added responsibility weighed against the thrill of running the crane.

"I worked on the Aqua building, 345 Ohio, something I can show my kids. They will be around long after I am gone,' Lodato said. "That is something I take pride in."

Putting the crane up is easier than taking it down. That process takes months no matter what time of year it is.

The average pay for a crane operator is $55 per hour, and because of the critical work they do, they often work overtime.

The completion date for the Vista Tower and Residences is spring 2020. The concrete crew who shepherded WGN around the work site will be done with the concrete portion in another six to seven months.

There are currently 49 cranes operating in the City of Chicago today.

LINK https://wgntv.com/2018/08/02/b...of-a-crane-operator/

Have a friend that did that, retired, worked out at KSC, on top of the Shuttle Buildings and more.

Another friend climbs towers for the Military/Nasa as a contractor out of Patrick AFB.

no way - no how

and I used to jump out of airplanes

max applause for them though

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That's just crazy.

Those guys weren't even wearing hard hats.

Odds of me doing that? Slim to None, and Slim has done left town. No way. Props to the guys who do that day in and day out.

Nope.

And even if you're someone who'd do it, you have to have a lot of faith in engineers and others who design and build the structure you sit atop as an operator. And the loads you can lift and swing before overpowering that tall skinny tower.

Nope.

My son operates cranes out in the West Texas oil fields. Some of his stories are very interesting. He finally told his mother what he does out there earlier this year. She’d been curious and had been asking questions. While she knew he operated cranes, she didn’t know he was the guy lowering the explosives into the well for fracking.

Gutsy reporter and camera operator.

Nope. But the video of a guy who climbed a 1000 radio tower for inspections, that at the top was about 3' across, actually made me a little ill.

As someone with a pretty good fear of heights, it's fascinating to me that people can do that kind of work.

My second thought was that "who in the world is investing millions of dollars" to build skyscrapers in Chicago now? I don't think the future there is very bright.

Looks like fun to me. Highest I’ve been on a restoration project is 300’ and that was quite the experience.

I am amazed at the the engineers who design the cranes to work/balance itself standing on the metal framework. No way I could do that everyday. I would have butterflies in my stomach constantly and my blood pressure would be through the roof.

I'd like to say "I'd try it". However, standing at the bottom of that exact crane on Thursday afternoon... I was having some second thoughts about hiking my ass up it.

We arrested some nit-wit kid (19yo) who decided to climb most of the way up the crane to take pictures of the city. I don't know how his pictures turned out, but his mug-shot wasn't half bad.

Back in the day, I was a Commercial Photographer.
I did many a climb going up onto cranes in downtown Chicago and walking the arm to set up tripods for before and after sunrise and sunset shots,for corporate brochures.
On one occasion I climbed to the top of one of the antennas on the John Hancock building to photograph the electricians below me taking down the scaffolding after they installed a new antenna. I brought a video camera with to record the event also. I had to wear a chain link mesh cover to shield myself and the video camera from the microwaves coming off the tower.
I found it very hard to climb the spike rungs on the side of the antenna above the scaffold with the mesh on and strapping the video camera (a large back then, commercial Sony model). In order to get to the top to make the shot I removed the chain link vest so I could climb.I got to the top and secured myself as best I could and started to film. That lasted a few minutes until the camera quit, The circuit board burned out from the microwaves (as Sony repair explained later).
The guys who do this daily sure earned my respect.I asked one of the workers when it was too windy to go up, he said when the skin on there face blows sideways, about 50 mph.

You could see a storm to the west approaching. The static electricity from that storm would give you an occasional shock when you touched steel. Myself and another photographer that was with me were told to get to the roof in the "bird cage" a wire basket used to bring the workers and supplies up the antenna.It traveled slow. There was not enough time for the workers to wait for the return of the "bird cage" to bring them down to the roof so they all had to climb the antenna down.It took them about 10 minutes to climb down, all the time hearing them yell when they got a good static electricity jolt while descending.

TOUGH way to make a living!

I am not a fan of heights either. I recall watching film of the iron workers just casually walking the high steel in New York. If I remember correctly these jobs were the province of the Mohawk tribe. Window washers on these buildings get my respect as well. For many years Polish immigrants in Chicago had those jobs, now they recruit almost exclusively from a small town in Mexico. They have had accidents in high winds and the scaffolding giving way.

That was my dream job when I was little. I had a toy crane with a wired remote. It swiveled and raised and lowered and went forwards and backwards.
I forgot about it and the job for years until recently. I'm too old and risk averse to do the job now.

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I don't know how his pictures turned out, but his mug-shot wasn't half bad.