For years, Robert van Bruggen was steering toward a career in the traffic
control industry. Although the road to get to that point may have been longer
than anticipated, and filled with some twists and turns, he eventually
reached his destination.
In 2004, Robert purchased the company Barricade Illumination Service from
Eric Short and changed the name to Barricades and Signs Ltd. It was a business
transaction that Robert had been eyeing since the early 1990s, when he was living
on an acreage outside of St. Albert and happened to be neighbours with Eric.
“My dad was a commercial landscaper at the time and casually mentioned to
Eric, ‘Hey, when you want to retire, I would be interested in looking at buying
your business,’” said Robert’s son, Jan van Bruggen, the current CEO of Barricades
and Signs.
“Eric was running it as a one-man show out of his double garage; it was a very
homegrown business. My dad felt that Eric was doing reasonably well and liked
how he operated the business. My dad has always been a bit of an entrepreneur –
buying and selling equipment and vehicles and running his commercial landscaping
business – so when he’d mentioned the idea to Eric I don’t know if he really
thought too much of it.”
P R O F I L E
Signs
Pointed
to a New
Career
From landscaping to ranching
to traffic control, it’s been quite
the ride for the van Bruggens
By Pat Rediger
Photos courtesy of Barricades and Signs Ltd.
ALBERTA HEAVY 2 2019 37