James Stewart Polshek & Assocs. v. Bergen County Iron Works, 142 N.J. Super. 516, 362 A.2d 63 (Ch.Div.1976), involved three parties. One, the City of Englewood, had separate contracts with an architect and a contractor. Both contracts contained arbitration clauses. The architect and the contractor had no contractual relationship and, consequently, no obligation to arbitrate with each other. After the contractor filed a demand for arbitration against both the City and the architect, the City filed a crossclaim against the architect. The court regarded the crossclaim as "in effect a demand for arbitration," and ordered the respective arbitrable claims to be taken up in a single proceeding. Id. at 523-24, 362 A.2d 63. The non-arbitrable claims were excluded. In this case there is an uncontroverted common thread of issues and facts arising out of a single project. Absent specific language prohibiting joint or consolidated arbitration, and where there is no showing of prejudice, consolidation is a practical, economical, convenient and preferred method of proceeding in the matters before the court. This is not doing indirectly what cannot be done directly since plaintiff has a contract with an agreement for arbitration with Englewood, and Englewood has a similar contract provision with Bergen Iron. Thus, Englewood can only seek an arbitration award against plaintiff. However, the matters can be heard contemporaneously, with witnesses and testimony that are common to other claims and witnesses who would obviously have to appear and testify in each. Nor is there any problem presented here concerning selection of arbitrators or inconsistent contractual provisions. Id. at 529, 362 A.2d 63.