Skyjacks for sport expansion

The Skyjack units supplied by Duke Rentals are being used for the construction of a new olympic sports center with locker rooms, batting cages, a weight room, and nutrition and sports medicine facilities at Iowa State University.

Construction equipment provider Duke Rentals has supplied a number of Skyjack machines for the US$90 million expansion works to the sports facilities at Iowa State University in the US. 

The Iowa-headquartered company, which has branches across the Midwest region including in Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas, supplied both scissor lifts and vertical masts for the construction of what has been described as “one of the most impressive college sports facilities in the United States”.

While the exact number of units supplied for the project was not disclosed, the vertical masts being used on the four-storey expansion project include Skyjack’s SJ12 and SJ16 models, which offer working heights of 5.48 and 6.58 metres respectively.

Several electric Skyjack scissor lift models, with working heights of between 7.6 and 13.4m, are also being used by the project’s main contractor for the installation of drywall and electrics, as well as decoration. 

Tom Schnetter, sales manager at Duke Rentals, said, “The Iowa State expansion is a fairly large project within our community and our team was happy to be part of it and support the trades on site.

“We have confidence putting Skyjack equipment on high-profile projects like this because we know they’re reliable, easy to maintain, and will provide the trades with maximum uptime.”

Iowa State University has strong sporting history and its American football team, The Cyclones, are a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision member of the NCAA and compete in the Big 12 Conference.

Upon completion, its newly expanded sports venue will include an olympic sports center with locker rooms, batting cages, a weight room, and nutrition and sports medicine facilities.