Colorado Barricade provides specialized skill in pavement marking installations, with jobs ranging from parking lots to long-line roadway striping.

Colorado Barricade Traffic Control Planners provide interactive traffic control training for local infrastructure companies and general contractors. The half-day workshops focus on specific job responsibilities and cover work zone safety processes, including interpretation, adaptation, and implementation of traffic control plans.

Colorado Barricade Co., founded in 1970 as a family-owned business, grew and was then sold in 2000 to Houston-based Highway Technologies Inc.; but in 2013, that national company went out of business, literally overnight, leaving over 700 devastated employees across 13 states, including the entire Denver team. What the prior owners didn’t expect was that some of those newly displaced Denver staff members weren’t willing to go down with the ship. Instead, led by Ted Ott and Rusty Reynolds, they quickly sought financing and bought the firm’s assets from the bankruptcy court, kick-starting the company back to life within a brief six weeks. Today, it is one of the largest traffic control companies in Colorado.

Pride in the Comeback

“It’s awesome to go back to being a locally owned company,” says Ott, the firm’s CEO. “We take our own chances, make our own mistakes. It’s pretty gratifying. It’s also exciting to see how many of the company’s former employees have returned since we brought the company back—it feels like an extended family.” 

“Having employees come back has been really, really important to us,” underscores Reynolds, the firm’s Vice President of Operations. “The shutdown was a brutal blow to our team, so it has been especially gratifying and affirming that people still want to be a part of our company.” He says that many employees who had been with the firm for 10 to 15 years prior to the shutdown have been steadily returning over the past three years. “It’s comforting that we have established a good culture where employees even encourage their friends to join the firm.”

Colorado Barricade is one of those behind-the-scenes businesses. The firm provides traffic control systems, road markings and signs to keep contractors and the traveling public safe. Products and services include traffic safety and management, event planning, providing equipment rental and safety supplies, pavement marking, and permanent sign installation. What makes this business so interesting? Two things: the projects the firm tackles and the diversity of its services.

“It’s awesome to go back to being a locally owned company. We take our own chances, make our own mistakes. It’s pretty gratifying.” Ted Ott, CEO, Colorado Barricade Co.

Safety and Special Events

Consider their past involvement in the USA Pro Challenge, a cycling event that was once referred to as one of the most exciting races on the global cycling calendar for fans and competitors alike before it was suspended due to funding challenges. The event injected the Colorado economy with an annual infusion of over $100 million.

To envision what goes into such an endeavor, consider this: Planning the course logistics took almost a year. Setup required about 2,500 barricades, ranging from metal structures to cones to detour signs. It’s a stealth operation where barricades appear and disappear ever so quickly. “It’s a fine balance between making sure the event goes off safely and promptly,” says Ott. “If nobody knows that we are down there and nobody even notices, then we’ve done our job.”

Last February, when the Denver Broncos became Super Bowl champions, the celebration, of course, had to include a celebratory parade. Colorado Barricade had just three days to prepare a route plan and a barricade system to accommodate a crowd of a million people. “Everyone pitched in and we worked 24 hours straight to pull it off,” says Reynolds. The route required 17,000 feet of barricade products.

These are just two examples of the many unique opportunities that the Colorado Barricade team takes on. Other memorable barricade and traffic control projects range from the 2008 National Democratic Convention to the more recent 2016 Western Conservative Summit with Donald Trump, and last June’s visit from the Dalai Lama.

Business Diversity

One interesting aspect of the firm is its participation in the signage components industry. Recently, the company purchased a digital printer capable of printing on the reflective substrate used on street and highway signs. “Embracing digital printing has been a risk that has paid off for us as our sign shop has seen a 30 percent increase in revenue year after year,” says Ben Sportel, the company’s Vice President of Finance. “Municipalities were hesitant at first, but after seeing that we can produce higher-quality signs for the same price, they have begun to adopt the new technology.” The firm has created custom signage, including roadside signs, custom overhead signs, traffic and directional signage, and special orders for unique events.

The firm’s revenue has increased by almost one-third in each of the last two years. Now, the biggest challenge is making sure it stays ahead of its own growth curve while recruiting employees in a tight labor market. “We’re addressing this a few different ways,” says Ott. “We’re investing in new equipment, upgrading our fleet, hiring in the field and in the office. To support our employees, we’ve been working this winter to set up training programs covering topics from safety to basic and advanced job skills. Our focus is on building a strong foundation now to support future growth.”