CREJ

Page 12 — Office & Industrial Quarterly — June 2021 www.crej.com OFFICE — CONSTRUCTION T here are a number of con- struction project delivery methods used today. Each has a time and place. Every construction project is unique. To determine the best con- struction project delivery method, owners must first evaluate their budget, design, risks and schedule, along with their own expertise in the design and construction process – for each project. The five most common construc- tion project delivery methods are: • Design-bid-build (aka competitive bid, stipulated sum or hard bid), • Construction management/gen- eral contractor, • Design-build, • Multi-prime and • Integrated project delivery. This article addresses the design- bid-build method. n Design-bid-build. This method is familiar to almost everyone in the industry as it has been used for decades. Its name describes the three sequential phases for this method. First, the owner and design team develop the design documents. This design is then sent to multiple general contractors to provide a bid. Bids are evaluated by the owner and design team for award, typically to the lowest bidder. A contract is agreed upon and signed, at which time construction (build) can begin. There are two relevant points to note that affect construction start- ing immediately. The first is a build- ing permit must be secured – if possible, the application for which might occur before contractor award. Second, materials must be ordered, mostly by subcon- tractors (trade part- ners). Orders can- not be placed and fabrication cannot begin until the general contractor has awarded con- tracts to the trade partners and mate- rial product data, samples and shop drawings are subse- quently submitted by these trade part- ners for approval by the design team. This submittal process definitely has a time element to it. Special consid- eration should be given to the lon- gest lead items being identified early. Construction cannot begin in earnest until materials have been fabricated and delivered. Two factors can have the biggest impact on the success of a DBB project. The first is to avoid tension among all parties; a successful DBB project requires meticulously thor- ough and accurate drawings and specifications to avoid potentially costly and contentious change orders and schedule delays. Draw- ings should be 100% completed and the specifications/details should be 100% applicable to the project before being released for bid. The drawings must have all comments by all authorities having jurisdiction incorporated and include all details and specifications. The primary reason for releasing a set of drawings (permit set) before all details have been completed is the schedule. This is a commonly used strategy to mitigate the impact of AHJ approval backlogs. However, the hard-bid method works best with 100% completed documents. Giving the design team the time to produce coordinated, complete documents is incredibly beneficial to the bid and construction phase. The impor- tance of this time cannot be stressed enough. One major benefit includes more interest and engagement from trade partners in bidding the project. Incomplete project documents bring many questions from the contrac- tors and trade partners during bid- ding. A project that begins the bid phase with incomplete information not only impacts valuable bidding time, but also leads to questions and doubts about the overall integ- rity of the project. Bidding on com- pleted drawings and specifications protects the owner and general con- tractor from bids that are missing scope or have added contingency for unclear information. The second factor impacting a project’s success is the owner warrants the sufficiency of the drawings and specifications to the contractor. The contractor is responsible to build the project as designed. The designer is respon- sible to design to the professional standard of care, but the owner is responsible for any “gaps” between the construction documents and the owner’s requirements. Allowing additional time during design will lessen the owner’s exposure to this risk. n Advantages. There are many advantages to DBB projects. It is the most familiar method and there are well-defined roles for the parties involved. The owner has a significant amount of control over the success or failure of the end product. The owner has control of the design and owns the details of the design. The best-suited projects for this method have a defined scope of work, real- istic schedule and are not subject to significant changes after bidding. n Disadvantages. With these proj- ects, there is no opportunity for col- laboration. The general contractor and trade partners may not assist with estimating, scheduling, draw- ing/specification coordination and constructability reviews during the design phase. The quality of the design has an impact on change orders and delays. Also, the owner generally faces exposure to change orders and claims over design and constructability issues since the owners accept liability for design in their contract with the contrac- tor, and the owners do not know what construction costs are until after the bid process; the risk is that bids are higher than the budget after a large portion of the design money has been spent. Additionally, a construction contract typically is awarded to the lowest bidder, with- out consideration of qualification. There is a potential for adversarial relationships as well as a potential for redesign and rebid if the project comes in over budget. The projects also can see long lead times as materials cannot be ordered or fab- Design-bid-build project advantages & challenges Laura Kingfisher Senior estimator, Swinerton Please see Kingfisher, Page 19