Robert Bales has a wide variety of experience as an engineer, project manager and builder, and has many years’ experience as a lawyer in construction and real estate.

Regarding civil construction, Mr. Bales has experience with road planning and construction including aerial photogrammetry and surveys; excavation; rock removal and blasting, grading and asphalt, water, sewer and storm water services; weather delays and contract interpretation.  Other civil projects include remote fuel containment facilities, railroad construction and port facility procurement assistance.  He has wide experience with sitework and foundations, with the full spectrum of geotechnical issues including pile installation and load testing, dewatering and sensitive soil conditions including the use of engineered lightweight fill.

He has project-managed and built hundreds of homes, primarily medium-density, from land location and planning through financing, design and construction, to commissioning and operation.  As a lawyer, he understands the regulations, Codes and practices faced by the construction industry, the financing and project approval burdens, and the challenges faced by all parties when a project goes wrong. 

Procedurally, Mr. Bales has conducted arbitrations based on documents only, through hearings from one- to fifteen-days duration, and has dealt with issues arising from complex expert evidence, technical reports, and difficult witnesses. He has experience with OPSS, CDBI design-build and CCDC documentation, and many other forms of construction and consultant contracts, acting as the owner’s representative, as a consultant, and as a contractor, and as a lawyer.

Although Construction Adjudication is a new process in Canada, Mr. Bales has served as an adjudicator in ten files over the past four years on civil claims from $500,000 through $3,500,000, and contract values up to $40 million.  He is the Co-Chair of the Construction Adjudication Section of the ADR Institute of Ontario, and has a thorough knowledge of adjudication procedures, laws and regulations.

Mr. Bales will work with the parties to plan, control and execute the resolution of a construction dispute on a timely and cost-effective basis.

Robert Bales, P.Eng., LL.B.
Ottawa, 23-Jun-21