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 most interesting portion of the Handbook appears in Chapter 2:  Deciding on the Project Delivery Method.  Here, the Council publishes survey results from telephone interviews with 20 public owners who have used design-build on water or waste-water projects.  On the issue of why they chose design-build, the owners offered the following reasons (in order of popularity):

1.  Single point of responsibility;

2.  Having the Constructor involved in the design phase;

3.  Speed;

4.  Price Certainty;

5.  Construction Quality;

6.  Reduced Change Orders and Claims; and

7.  Cost Savings.

The entire Handbook is available at the Water Design-Build Council’s website

The Columbus City Council approved a measure authorizing design-build and construction manager at-risk contracts Monday.  Ohio state law allows the methods to be considered for qualifying city projects excluding contracts for paving, sewer and water line extensions, as well as, work at the wastewater treatment plant.

Columbus will use the design-build delivery method this summer on six tennis courts in Pawnee Park.

Last Thursday, the Washington Department of Transportation signed a $1.35 billion contract with Seattle Tunnel Partners to design and construct a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct near Seattle’s waterfront.  Seattle Tunnel Partners – a joint venture between Dragados USA and Tutor Perini Corporation – was identified last month as the best value proposer.

An engineering marvel, the proposed tunnel is expected to be 200 feet below downtown Seattle.  It will have an approximate exterior diameter of 55 feet and an approximate length of 1.7 miles. http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/Questions.htm#11. 

The tunnel will accommodate a 32-foot wide roadway with a 15 foot vertical clearance. http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/35FAE5C0-C79F-496D-9354-DEC2E4E98819/0/SR99BoredTunnel_STP.pdf 

The RFP included a suggested substantial completion date of November 1, 2016.  But Seattle Tunnel Partners expects to have it completed by December, 2015.  Subcontractors include Frank Coluccio Construction and Mowat Construction for construction and HNTB Corporation and Intecsa-Inarsa for design.

Earlier this week, the Lebanon Community School Corporation board of trustees selected design-build as the delivery method for its upcoming corporation-wide building renovation project.  The board’s decision was based heavily on the fact that Hamilton Southeastern and Noblesville schools recently opted for design-build with their renovation projects.  http://reporter.net/local/x1293915610/LCSC-opts-for-design-build-method-for-upcoming-project 

Design-build offers cost and time savings over competitive bidding, which requires multiple stages of procurement and longer design and construction phases.  Check out my posts discussing the Top 5 Reasons to select design-build over competitive bidding.  http://www.designbuildboard.com/?s=Reasons

The Design Build Institute of America continues adding to its educational resources for design-build project delivery.  Following a recent position statement on “integrated project delivery,” DBIA has now released a statement on forming a design-build entity. 

According to the statement, a design-build entity can take virtually any form:  contractor-led, designer-led, joint venture, single purpose entity, or integrated firm with in-house design and construction capabilities.  It cautions, however, that regardless of its form, the design-build entity must meet three conditions:

1.  A single entity holds the contract with the owner;

2.  This entity is contractually responsible for the management and performance of both design and construction and possesses the financial and managerial resources to perform the design-build contract; and

3.  After discussion by the parties, risk for both design and construction is appropriately assigned to the party best able to manage, price and insure the risk.

The full statement is available through a link on DBIA’s website:  http://www.dbia.org/NR/rdonlyres/6E3F13AC-C273-400F-AAB4-35773DF8D08D/0/DBIAPS_orgofdbentity.pdf