OUR STORY
After decades of experience working in the heavy lift and transport industry, and after a culmination of factors in the industry, it was decided that the time was right to start a company to support the heavy lift industry as a whole. Our desire is to work closely with those heavy lift & transport companies that may not have the experience level or the employee base needed to cover complex rigging and haul projects. We wanted to start a company that provides our level of expertise to the industry without the need for a construction based company to have an internal engineering department. In short, we provide the engineering and planning….so you don’t have to!
Looking back at our past, we began this journey years ago while working at Rigging International (RI). RI was known for providing some of the best people and equipment to the Nuclear and Waterfront industries. We gained our core experience from those years at RI; developing new equipment and creative solutions for lifting extreme loads in constrained environments. In many cases, utilizing basic equipment to complete complex rigging situations forced us to keep our attention on important details, narrow down the problems, and produce simple and work-wise solutions. We lived in very scrutinous environments; nuclear and waterfront work where 3 point communications and 3rd party reviews are king! We learned how to navigate and engineer in these environments which ultimately led to overall better quality and confidence in our design methods. Our time at Rigging International was invaluable and created the basic foundation of who we are; keep solutions safe, simple, sound, field friendly, and economical. We would like to give special thanks to our past mentors and owners as Rigging International for creating such a great company and a good place to work for many years!
Following our time at Rigging International, we continued our journey while working at Sarens and then Bigge Crane. Sarens and Bigge are giants in the industry and provided us with experience to handle large crane projects. While working through complex crane operations, we received the knowledge and experience of using super lift cranes in the petrochemical and oil and gas industries. We also furthered our experience in large module rigging and transports, combined cycle plant sets with hydraulic gantries, and complex over-the-road transport arrangements. Nowadays, understanding the current and best available transporter and crane options is key to providing the customer with state of the art solutions. We would like to thank Sarens and Bigge for the years we had with them and the knowledge we gained while working with their best of class people and equipment.
In many cases, using state of the art equipment does not necessarily mean the best overall heavy lift or transport solution. Our time spent with Rigging International, Sarens, and Bigge built our foundation of understanding and implementing old and new methods. We now lean on that experience and provide the customer with the overall best solution for their needs. In some cases, simple and somewhat outdated methods can be used as best solutions. We have the experience to make that judgement call. We are diversified and have therefore included that fact in our name; we are “Diversified Heavy Lift, Inc.”
Our goals moving forward is to provide our future customers with the best solutions, clear direction, and professional guidance they need to safely and efficiently complete their heavy lift and transport project. We consider ourselves as a personal extension of your company and will engage and work along your team in the same manner. Please allow us to become a member of your team!
Frank R. Dominy P.E.
Co-Owner / President
Frank is a licensed Professional Engineer with 24+ years experience in the specialized heavy lift, rigging, and heavy haul industries. Frank holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Throughout his career Frank has worked as a Design Engineer, Field Engineer, Project Manager, and Superintendent on numerous heavy lift projects. Franks has extensive experience in areas including container crane relocation, nuclear power projects, heavy cargo ocean barge moves and heavy transport.
Frank’s hobbies include snowmobiling, motorcycle riding and generally living the Montana lifestyle!
Travis J. Stav, P.E.
Co-Owner / Vice President
Travis is a licensed Professional Engineer with 22+ years experience in the specialized heavy lift, rigging, and heavy haul industries. Travis holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering from Montana State University. Throughout his career, Travis has held positions as a Design Engineer, Project Engineer, Project Manager, and Engineering Manager. Travis has immense experience designing heavy lift equipment for the nuclear power and petrochemical sectors. Travis is well versed in the design and code requirements for all aspects of the heavy lift industry.
Travis’ hobbies include backcountry big game hunting and bird hunting in the great Montana outdoors. When not dreaming of bow or rifle hunting, he enjoys camping with his family, fishing and motorcycling.
Stephen P. Koski, P.E.
Design / Project Engineer
Stephen is a licensed Professional Engineer with 6+ years experience in the specialized heavy lift, rigging, and heavy haul industries. Stephen holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Montana State University. Stephen has worked as a Project, Design and Field Engineer on a variety of heavy lift projects across multiple sectors including: nuclear, petrochemical, natural gas, and US ports.
Outside of work, Stephen is passionate about fly fishing our great Montana streams. He also enjoys rafting, hiking and camping in our great outdoors.