Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office published a study entitled Using Public Private Partnerships to Carry Out Highway Projects.  http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12647  The study addresses two issues:  1) can design-build and PPP models provide additional funding for highway projects? and 2) does design-build provide a faster and more cost effective model for delivering highway projects?  See Preface.    A post [...]

The Water Design-Build Council (www.waterdesignbuild.org) has released the Second Edition of its Municipal Water & Wastewater Design-Build Handbook.  The Handbook is an educational tool for owners.  It discusses basic concepts and best practices for executing design-build and construction management (at-risk) projects on public water and waste-water projects.  From defining design-build through managing the design-build contract, the Handbook offers a thorough discussion of design-build project delivery.   The [...]

Many of you know that the American Institute of Architects (AIA) published what it calls Integrated Project Delivery research papers and model contracts (see link at the right of this page).  There is some ambiguity in AIA’s conclusions for the ideal delivery method for executing IPD projects.  AIA’s research focuses on delivering integrates services (without [...]

If you saw my post yesterday about Minnesota’s Court of Appeals decision in the I-35W bridge collapse case, then you’ll be interested to know that the State’s Supreme Court could undo the Court of Appeals’ decision. Check out this article:  http://www.finance-commerce.com/article.cfm/2010/03/02/Deconstructing-the-I35W-bridge-contract-High-court-considers-whether-MnDOT-acted-legally-in-choosing And stay tuned for the high court’s decision . . .

Local governments can execute faster and cheaper water and waste-water projects – with no loss in quality – by using design-build.  This is the conclusion of a joint research study by the University of New Mexico, Iowa State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Surveying 100 projects valued at more than $3 million [...]