NEWS BRIEFS foreign companies would be able to bid and win the work. These fears have been allayed be- cause major Canadian contractors in- cluding Aecon, ACS Infrastructure Canada, EllisDon, and SNC-Lavalin joined forces as equal 25 per cent part- ners to form Crosslinx Transit Solu- tions (CTS), beating out another consortium, Crosstown Transit Part- ners, built on a largely foreign consor- tium including Fengate Capital Management Ltd., OHL Concesiones S.A., STRABAG Inc., Bechtel Develop- ment Company, Inc. and Obayashi Canada Holdings, Ltd. The new consortium has already set up a website at http://www.crosslinx- transitsolutions.ca and has invited sup- pliers and sub-contractors to express interest in participating in the project. Infrastructure Ontario (IO) has been giving weight to “local knowledge” in evaluating competitive bids, and this presumably helped the Canadian-led consortium in the two-way race for the massive project. CTS will be responsible for the de- sign, build, finance, operation, and maintenance and lifecycle activities of the 19 km. line for a 30-year term. It in- cludes 25 stations, an integrated sys- tem of track work, rolling stock, as well as signaling and communications in- frastructure. Financial close on the project is ex- pected by summer 2015, with con- struction anticipated to start in the first quarter of 2016. Separately, in November 2013, and as part of a 50/50 joint venture with CONSTRUCTION ACROSS CANADA ACS Dragados Canada, Aecon was awarded a $177 million tunneling con- tract by Metrolinx for the construction of a section of the Eglington Crosstown LRT. Ottawa: City challenges Ontario Municipal Board ruling reducing municipal control of building heights The City of Ottawa has decided to challenge in court an Ontario Munici- pal Board (OMB) decision to overturn the city’s control of building heights through the Official Plan and local neighbourhood plans. The story started when city plan- ners objected to a proposal by owners of 267 O’Connor St. to build two 27- storey dual condo towers with a bridge connecting them, replacing a six-storey medical building. The plan by Mastercraft Starwood “will draw attention to itself not as a striking piece of architecture that might be considered a piece or art, but rather as an anomaly within the central character area,” planner Douglas James wrote in a scathing 2014 re- view. The owners objected, and the OMB merk@merx.com 12 – July-August 2015 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report www.merx.com agreed, that the city could not use the Official Plan and related Community Development Plans to specify heights. The argument is these should be regulated by zoning bylaws, instead. “Official plans should be flexible documents setting out general policy and are not intended to be prescriptive in their application,” OMB member Richard Makuch wrote in his decision on April 29. “This is not good planning,” he wrote. “(It) will not result in better urban form but rather it will place undue hardship on applicants by forc- ing them to amend their plans or ob- tain relief by applying for an official plan amendment in order to meet a somewhat arbitrary standard that can- not respond to individual circum- stances and context.” This OMB decision reflects the de- velopment industry’s views, says John Herbert, executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Asso- ciation (GOHBA). “While the city can set height restrictions in zoning by- laws, it should not use the broad strokes of the Official Plan to set these restrictions.” Not surprisingly, in deciding to spend money on lawyers and seek leave to appeal the OMB decision to the divisional court, the city disagrees. Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority issues first request for construction tenders The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Author- ity (WDBA) announced in early June www.merx.com/events