After observing construction equipment trainees operate excavating and paving equipment at the facility, both the Lt. Governor and Commissioner entered a computer simulator where they tested their own skills at maneuvering a virtual boom crane. Both officials were then given an opportunity to put their fast training to work by operating the real thing: a crane at the training center which they maneuvered to pick up and move a block of concrete.

The tour was conducted on Dec. 18 by William T. Mullen, President of the New Jersey State Building & Construction Trades Council, and Greg Lalevee, Vice President of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825.

The training facility is one of two centers at which the union provides its members access to heavy equipment and training regarding every topic on heavy equipment operation they need to know. The second facility is in Middletown, N.Y.

The South Brunswick facility, located in the Dayton section of the township, has full-time, on-location instructors providing heavy equipment operator training, training in emergency response, hazardous waste operations and federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements to keep contractors supplied year-round with safe, skilled, and efficient operators.

Greg Lalevee, Vice President of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825, tutored Labor
Commissioner Harold J. Wirths on operating a crane during a tour of the union’s South Brunswick training
facility. In the background, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno chatted with William T. Mullen, President of the
New Jersey State Building & Construction Trades Council.