Fontana: Steel Town Roots, Warehouse Town Cranes

A short history of heavy lifting in Fontana

Kaiser's mill ran from about 1942 until the early 1980s on a site of more than a thousand acres. After bankruptcy, much of the plant was dismantled and some of its equipment was shipped to China and reassembled. The state's Department of Toxic Substances Control oversaw cleanup of the brownfield, and the California Speedway opened in 1997 on part of the old Kaiser property.

California Steel Industries still operates on part of the former mill land, so the city has kept the overhead cranes, maintenance shutdowns and heavy equipment moves that come with steel processing. Overhead and gantry crane operation inside a plant is covered by different rules than mobile cranes, but plant rigging crews and maintenance contractors with mobile cranes work side by side.

Turns 1 and 2 are now warehouses

The track, later known as Auto Club Speedway, hosted its last NASCAR Cup race in 2023. A county-approved specific plan, Speedway Commerce Center II, covers redevelopment of about 433 acres of the roughly 522-acre site into logistics buildings, and by 2025 the first two buildings stood where turns one and two used to be. Around 90 acres were set aside for a smaller motorsports venue, though reporting in 2025 said those plans had stalled.

That is a lot of tilt-up walls, steel joists, roof decks and rooftop units, and it keeps mobile cranes and rigging crews in steady demand.

Big-box logistics projects tend to run several buildings at once, which can put more than one crane on a site with overlapping swing areas. When that happens, the lift plan needs a clear method for keeping booms and loads apart, and every operator needs to know who has the signal for each pick. Those coordination questions are part of what separates routine picks from incidents.

Before you set up in Fontana

• Wind: Fontana sits on the alluvial slope below the Cajon Pass, where Santa Ana winds hit hardest. Check gust forecasts, not just averages.
• Old industrial ground: fill, buried foundations and former slag areas can surprise you. Ask for the geotechnical data.
• Freight traffic: setups near the I-10 and I-15 corridors and busy truck routes need traffic control and a qualified signal person.
• Heat: summer afternoons call for Cal/OSHA heat-illness measures for the whole crew.

Certification in plain terms

California runs its own OSHA program, and its crane rules in Title 8 make one thing clear: before someone runs a mobile or tower crane for you, they need an accredited certificate for that type of crane. No state license is involved. Our guide to California requirements covers the full process.

Fontana operators usually start with mobile crane operator prep. Plant and warehouse crews benefit from Rigger Level I and Rigger Level II, and anyone flagging blind picks should take the signal person course.