Mobile Office Trailers Around Pittsburgh

Hills decide everything

Finding level ground is the hard part of any Pittsburgh job. The city is built on slopes between three rivers, streets climb at angles that stop a delivery truck, and a lot that looks flat on a map may drop ten feet at one side. A trailer needs a level pad, a clear approach and room to set down, so talk about the grade in the first call.

Describe the slope, the street width, the turn into the site and any low bridge or tunnel on the route. Pittsburgh has plenty of those, and a truck carrying a trailer cannot take every one. A provider who knows the area will plan the route. One who does not may arrive and find that the truck cannot make the final turn. Photos of the access help.

What gets built

Health care and education carry much of the work. UPMC's hospitals in Oakland and elsewhere, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon are always renovating something, and a lab building under construction near Oakland needs an office that fits a dense block. Downtown and the Strip District have conversions of old warehouses into offices and apartments. Along the rivers, the old steel mill sites have been redeveloped into shopping and offices, with some parks, and the work continues in the Mon Valley.

Natural gas and chemicals add jobs outside the city. Marcellus shale drilling and pipeline work, and the cracker plant down the Ohio River in Beaver County, use field trailers. Bethel Park and the South Hills have schools, medical offices and subdivisions. Monroeville and Plum to the east are retail, office and warehouse sites along the Parkway and the Turnpike. The airport corridor on the west side has logistics work.

Bridges and tunnels do more than limit routes. They set what can reach a site at all. A double-wide trailer travels on a wider load than a single, and some streets in the Hill District or on the South Side slopes will not take it. If a provider says they can only bring a single, believe them and plan the office around it.

It is also common in this region to set a trailer on a pad that has been cut into the hill and built up with stone. Ask your excavation contractor to leave a bench big enough for the trailer, the steps and a place for a person to stand. A pad that is too small for the ramp is a known problem.

On the line with the yard

Give the address and a straight description of the slope. Then the route in: street names, turning points, any posted weight limits. Add the start date, the length of the job and a headcount. Mention power and water, and say if the public will come in, because on a slope a ramp becomes a design question.

Some of the best advice in this region comes from the delivery driver. Drivers know which streets have a grade the truck cannot climb with a load, and which lots look flat but have soft fill under the gravel. If the job is complicated, ask the provider to send the driver out before delivery day. The extra visit costs less than a stuck truck.

Many sites are former industrial grounds with old foundations, slag and fill buried in the dirt. A trailer set on one of them needs the pad checked before anything heavy goes on it.

Cold and mud

Winters freeze, and the ground thaws into mud in March. Heat and floor insulation are worth asking about. Pittsburgh gets snow but less than the lake-effect belt, and the bigger problem is ice on hillside roads that keeps a delivery truck off the site. Plan the delivery date with that in mind.

Landslides are a real worry on cut slopes after heavy rain. A trailer at the bottom of a hillside, or at the edge of a fill, needs a look from someone who knows the site. Do not put it where a wet bank can slide. If the site engineer has a slope report, hand it to the provider.

Where a jobsite sits close to a river, flood maps matter too. Parts of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio valleys flood, and a trailer on low ground by the water may be moved if the river rises. Ask the provider about their policy on a relocation during a flood warning.

Permits

Allegheny County is split into a great many small municipalities, and each one runs its own show. The city of Pittsburgh, Bethel Park, Monroeville and Plum all have separate building offices. A trailer that is fine in one can need a permit in the next. Ask each of them what they require for a temporary office, how long it can stay, and whether the utility hookups need separate approval.

Some providers will do the paperwork, and some leave it to you. Ask which before you sign.

The truck that delivers a trailer on a hillside costs more time than the trailer rents for in a week. Spend the time on the route.

Looking for a different city? Here are some nearby.

Other Pittsburgh equipment topics.