The demand for data centers continues to grow, alongside the dramatically varying scope and scale of each project. But one thing that remains the same is that these facilities need their mission-critical equipment delivered on-site, on time, safely, and efficiently.

The challenge of delivering infrastructure to site is a vital part of successful project execution – from logistics and storage to transportation and installation, every stage requires careful coordination to keep projects on schedule and minimize risk.

Bill Tierney, director of project development at ProLift Rigging, has spent the past decade helping contractors meet these challenges across an incredible range of data center projects:

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve worked on job sites, primarily offloading and setting equipment for electrical, mechanical, and general contractors. There’s also been an offsite element of our work, storing some of this mission-critical equipment, project buffering it, and last-mile hauling it to our sites.”

Raising the bar for rigging

As investment in mission-critical equipment continues to rise – driven by ever-more-sophisticated compute architectures and the intelligent power and cooling systems required to support them – the stakes of getting logistics and installation right have also become significantly greater. In this way, protecting high-value assets through transportation, lifting, and installation is just as important as delivering them on schedule.

At the same time, there are often multiple ways to execute a project’s lifting and rigging scope, making the choice of partner crucial. According to Tierney, clients are looking beyond basic lifting capabilities in favor of specialists that can provide engineered solutions from the earliest stages of project planning.

“We’re seeing more and more engineered lift plan requirements – not just generic, off-the-shelf lift plan programs, but actual rigging engineering drawings.”

In meeting this demand, ProLift has expanded its engineering capabilities, placing greater emphasis on early project feasibility and collaborative planning. By engaging with clients at the outset, ProLift aims to identify potential challenges before work begins and develop the most effective lifting strategy for each project.

That collaboration extends to consider the needs of other stakeholders across the project delivery chain.

The company’s focus is also on creating solutions that can be applied beyond a single project. So rather than designing bespoke engineering for every lift, its R&D team looks for opportunities to develop repeatable processes that improve efficiency and can be adapted for future deployments.

“Our R&D team is constantly looking at ways to improve. The goal is not just designing a one-off engineered solution for one specific project, but for the designs to be able to accommodate future projects,” says Tierney.

Real solutions for real challenges

Where the trend toward prefabricated, modular infrastructure set on skids reduces much of the in-field complexity of installation, there are still fundamental challenges that make careful, expert rigging critical.

Drawing on a recent project, Tierney highlights three common challenges that illustrate why engineered lifting solutions have become so important.

The first concerns the design of the electrical skids themselves. Their lifting points and the overall geometry can make them difficult to handle throughout the journey from the fabrication facility to the end field location.

“With a multi-story location, you’re feeding some pretty big electrical skids into a wall opening with some tight dimensions, so the challenge is getting these rigged in safely and efficiently.”

The second challenge comes once the equipment is inside the building. Transporting heavy skids through internal corridors and plant rooms requires careful assessment of turning clearances, floor loading, and any weak points along the travel path to ensure equipment can be moved safely without compromising the structure.

Finally, the installation itself requires an equally high level of precision. Once a skid has been lowered into its final position, there is little to no opportunity for adjustment. The rigging must therefore be designed so it can be removed cleanly from beneath the equipment without disturbing its final placement – once it’s down, it’s down.

What’s next in rigging

As data centers become larger, denser, and increasingly vertical, the demand for engineered lifting and rigging solutions is only expected to grow. Providers that can combine crane services, engineered lift planning, logistics, and self-performed rigging will be best placed to support increasingly complex installations while continuing to improve safety and efficiency.

Looking further ahead, Tierney believes the next challenge will extend beyond construction to the operational life of data centers. As facilities age, operators will need to remove, replace, and upgrade individual pieces of equipment – often in highly constrained spaces and without disrupting live operations.

“I'll be curious to see maintenance from a lifecycle standpoint – removing and replacing equipment inside these data halls in challenging locations as data centers continue to run and age. Companies like ours will be asked to come up with solutions that are the least disruptive to the actual operating plant.”

Watch the full DCD>Talks episode for deeper insights here.