Continental Crane Co. last week announced it has set up in the Los Angeles area to help contractors tackle the shortage of cranes in Southern California and the rest of the Southwestern region of the United States. The company said it is building “the largest, most modern and best equipped fleet of new rough-terrain cranes available for bare rental.”

Continental Crane said it will have more than 30 new rough terrains by mid 2008, including 10 units of the 90-ton class Link-Belt RTC 8090 Series II, with 140 feet of main boom and a maximum tip height of 238 feet. The new company also stocks the latest rough-terrain models from all the leading manufacturers, including Grove and Terex.

All machines have Tier III engines and are CARB (California Air Resources Board) compliant, enabling contractors in California to meet the increasingly tough engine emissions regulations imposed by the state authorities.

Continental Crane has a partnership arrangement with Bigge Equipment, which offers customers tower and crawler cranes for rent or sale, as well as all types of wheeled mobile cranes.

“We can state quite confidently that no one else in Southern California has such a large, new and environmentally friendly fleet of rough-terrain cranes as Continental Crane Co.,” said Mike Rice, Continental Crane’s rental manager. “We also have factory-trained and factory-certified technicians to service the equipment and a comprehensive parts department to meet every need of all our customers.

“From our premises in La Mirada, in the greater Los Angeles area, we are strategically located to serve contractors not only in Southern California but also across the Desert Southwest up to Las Vegas, east to Phoenix, and beyond. In the current market, many contractors have had problems getting good new cranes. We are here to solve those problems.”

Continental Crane Co. opened in the Los Angeles area to serve the rough-terrain crane rental needs of the entire Southwestern region of the U.S. Pictured is a Terex RT 1120.