Denver, Colorado · Est. 2001 · Employee owned
Rock excavation inside an active interstate. A concentrator at three thousand metres. A levee to a hundred-year standard. Twenty-five years of heavy civil, industrial and energy work, self-performed, bonded, and delivered by people who still answer the phone.
Who we are
Ironwood was founded in 2001 with eleven people and one used excavator. We now field 1,850 employees from eight offices in four countries, and we still move our own earth, place our own concrete and hang our own steel.
That matters more than it sounds. When a schedule slips, the contractor who subcontracted the work sends a letter. The contractor who owns the crews sends a superintendent. We have built the company around being the second kind, which is why 71% of our revenue comes from owners we have worked for before.
| Founded | 2001, Denver, Colorado |
|---|---|
| Ownership | Employee-owned (ESOP) since 2014 |
| Employees | 1,850 craft, engineering and professional |
| Bonding | $750M single / $1.5B aggregate |
| Safety (EMR) | 0.61, three-year rolling |
| Offices | 8 across the US, Canada, Chile and Australia |
What we do
Most owners end up managing three contracts and a design consultant to get one facility. We would rather hold the whole thing, or the part of it we are genuinely best at.
01, Service
Structures, earthwork and roadway delivered by crews who have run them for two decades.
02, Service
Process plants, terminals and manufacturing built to be commissioned, not just completed.
03, Service
Two hundred and ten engineers, designers and BIM specialists in-house.
04, Service
Owner's-side delivery for agencies and producers who need one accountable party.
05, Service
Single-contract delivery backed by a self-perform core and disciplined subcontractor management.
06, Not sure?
Call the switchboard and describe it to our automated receptionist in plain language. It will take the details, book a call-back with the right estimator, and email you a reference number.
Markets
We deliberately stay out of work we cannot staff from our own bench. These are the four markets where we have the crews, the licences and the references.
Market 01
Cross-border delivery through in-country partnerships we have held for over a decade.
Market 02
Generation, transmission, midstream and renewable balance-of-plant for investor-owned utilities.
Market 03
Federal, state and municipal programmes of record, delivered under audit.
Market 04
Development, contract mining, tailings and closure across coal, copper and industrial minerals.
Selected work
Between them: 3.4 miles of interstate through a geologically active corridor, a 380 MW pumped storage scheme, a concentrator at altitude, and a five-year mining term contract that has run for seven.
Heavy Civil · Design-Build
Clear Creek County, Colorado, $214M
Energy · Design-Bid-Build
Chelan County, Washington, $388M
Mining · Contract Mining
Campbell County, Wyoming, $172M
Mining · Design-Build
Antofagasta Region, Chile, $245M
Consecutive hours without a lost-time incident across all operating companies.
Against a construction industry average of 1.00.
Share of annual revenue from owners we have served before.
Plus four Canadian provinces, Chile and Western Australia.
How we work
Most project failures are decided in preconstruction, months before anyone notices. These are the four we refuse to skip.
Our estimators sit with our engineers and a field superintendent before a number goes out the door. If the sequence in the drawings cannot be built in the weather window allowed, we say so in the proposal rather than in a change order.
The person who will run your job is named, by name, with their project history, in the bid. Owners should not discover who is running their project on mobilisation day.
We state in writing what share of the contract value our own crews will execute. On our heavy civil work that figure averages 78%. It is the single best predictor of whether a schedule holds.
Not a generic corporate policy, a project-specific hazard analysis based on the actual site, the actual access routes and the actual adjacent operations. It is usually two days of work before we have been awarded anything.
It is calculated by our workers' compensation carrier from three years of actual claims data, and it directly reduces what we pay to insure our crews. A contractor cannot round it up. Ask any contractor you shortlist what theirs is, and ask to see the letter.
Every call answered
Our switchboard is staffed around the clock and backed by an automated receptionist that never puts a caller on hold. It takes the project details in plain conversation, books a call-back with the right estimator, and files a full transcript to our dispatch team.
Field emergencies, bid invitations, supplier enquiries and job applications all reach the right desk, with a written record of exactly what was said.
Recording and transcription are disclosed at the start of each call. Callers may ask to speak to a person at any time, or to have the recording deleted.
Credentials
Certifications are only useful if they are current. Ours are audited annually and available on request.
Management systems
Safety programmes
Trade certifications
Government & compliance
Common questions
Email bids@ironwoodgroups.com with your company profile, trade classification, bonding capacity and three references. Our preconstruction team reviews new subcontractor and supplier applications monthly and will confirm your classification in writing.
Yes. We self-perform earthwork, structural concrete, structural steel, deep foundations, mechanical and piping, and electrical and instrumentation work as a subcontractor to other primes, particularly on projects outside our four core markets.
Our surety programme supports $750M single-project and $1.5B aggregate bonding capacity through an A+ XV rated, Treasury-listed surety. We can provide letters of bonding capacity on request within one business day.
Every brownfield project begins with a joint risk assessment alongside the facility operator, producing a project-specific safety plan and permit-to-work matrix before mobilisation. We staff a dedicated Site Safety and Health Officer on any project over 200,000 hours, and we work to the operator's permit system, not ours.
The Experience Modification Rate is an insurance industry measure comparing a contractor's injury record to its peers; 1.00 is average, and lower is better. Our three-year rolling EMR is 0.61, which lowers our workers' compensation cost and, more importantly, is the clearest evidence we can offer that our safety programme is real rather than a document.
Yes. All work carries a standard one-year warranty in addition to any longer manufacturer or specified warranty, and we administer warranty claims directly rather than routing them through a subcontractor. Structural and waterproofing warranties extend to the period specified in the contract documents.
Yes. Since 2014 the majority of the company has been held by an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, which means every eligible employee is a shareholder at no cost to them. It is the single largest reason our field leadership tenure averages eleven years.
Ironwood was founded in Denver in 2001 and has operated continuously since. We have worked in 34 states, four Canadian provinces and four countries.
Our emergency line at (303) 555-0199 is answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Calls to the main switchboard after hours are answered by our automated receptionist, which will take your details and page the on-call duty manager immediately.
Yes, and we prefer to. Our registered apprenticeship programmes in operating engineering, ironwork, carpentry and electrical take candidates with no prior trade experience, pay a wage from day one and provide paid classroom instruction. Applications open each February for a summer intake.
For field leadership, engineering and professional roles, yes, typically a lump sum or a managed relocation package. Many of our projects also carry per diem and rotational schedules for candidates who prefer to travel rather than relocate.
We actively recruit transitioning service members and veterans, particularly for field supervision and safety roles. Our Federal Programs group is led by a retired U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer, and we participate in SkillBridge and Hiring Our Heroes.
Next step
Call the switchboard and our automated receptionist will take the details, book a call-back with the right estimator, or put you straight through to dispatch. It answers in under two seconds, day or night.
