Rock to Road

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Making in-roads with ORBA

February 12, 2013  By  Andrew Macklin


February
12, 2013, Toronto, Ont. – At the 2012 Ontario Road Builders Association
convention in Toronto, one common theme dominated the discussions: how do we
build better roads?

February
12, 2013, Toronto, Ont. – At the 2012 Ontario Road Builders Association
convention in Toronto, one common theme dominated the discussions: how do we
build better roads?

Government
officials, equipment dealers, association representatives and contractors all
contributed to the discussions as close to 400 people from across Ontario’s road
building industry filled the halls at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in downtown
Toronto.

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Several
senior members of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation kicked off day two of
the annual convention, talking about improvements made in each stage of the
process of getting provincial roads built. MTO executive director and chief
engineer of asset management Steve Cripps discussed how alternate contract
delivery models are becoming success stories in Ontario, leading to better
quality road construction projects. Those models will be used in some of the
$3.1 billion worth of road projects budgeted across Ontario in 2013.

One of
the biggest improvements made in the relationship between ORBA and MTO has been
an increase in the number of road tenders released in the first quarter of the
year. In 2012, the Ministry of Transportation released 34 tenders for road
building projects in Ontario. In 2013, that number has been increased to 47.
Those 47 projects are worth an estimated $504 million.

There
were also discussions surrounding the improvement of the system for dispute
resolution in Ontario. Based loosely on the model of dispute resolution currently
used in British Columbia, contractors will now have the option of introducing a
referee into the resolution process. A single referee will be available for
disputes that are valued at less than $750,000, while disputes of a higher
value will include a three-referee system. Unlike the B.C. model though, legal
council will not be allowed to participate in the referee sessions.

For more
on the issues discussed at the 2013 ORBA Convention and AGM, read the full
article in the March/April edition of Aggregates and Roadbuilding magazine.


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