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Design-build still has hurdles to overcome in the regional market, though it is gaining popularity in the infrastructure space.
Even though the design-build method has been picking up prominence nationally, the New York area remains slow to embrace it because of an unfavorable regulatory environment and general industry skepticism.
While proponents say the project-delivery method, which combines project design and construction into a single contract, can garner faster schedules and cut costs, it has yet to catch on beyond projects in the transportation realm, where owners are often open to a flexible design process.
Restrictive law in New York and New Jersey generally makes it difficult for project owners and state agencies to choose design-build as an option, though some, like the Metropolitan Transit Authority, are able to employ it. Meanwhile, a bill in the New York State Legislature that would have further discouraged design-build projects did not get out of committee, but has been introduced several years in a row.
In conventional design-bid-build construction, an owner typically commissions a design and bids for a contractor's services after the plans are nearly complete. But a design-build team comes on board while project design is as little as 5 to 30 percent complete, giving the team much greater control over final design, material selection, and other project details. Which party ultimately controls the design - the owner or the contractor - is the center of much of the debate around design-build.
The transfer of project control from the owner to the design-build team is one of the biggest stumbling points limiting design-build's usefulness, said Malcolm McLaren, founder and president of the McLaren Engineering Group of West Nyack, N.Y.
"What they're doing is relinquishing control," he said. "There's no advocate for the owner. No one is watching out for the owner's concerns."
Proponents of design-build counter that the real hurdle is an unwillingness to give the method a chance. A Construction Industry Institute-Pennsylvania State University study found that design-build projects came in 33 percent quicker, 6 percent less expensive, and with 60 percent less litigation than conventional design-bid-build projects, said Brian Perlberg, director of government affairs at the Design-Build Institute of America.
"Once you get over the status quo and people start doing it, they find design-build works for all types of projects," he said.
McLaren said he has not seen such benefits at the project level.
"Owners think they're getting speed and cost efficiency, but I just haven't seen the benefits schedule-wise or costwise," he added.
McLaren said that in a project with a complex design or whose structure or site specifications are subject to change, the owner should stay firmly in control. Still, he said design-build belongs on the menu from which contractors can select.
"For a routine building or warehouse, design-build might work," he said.
Design-build has won some fans in the New York region, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It has selectively used design-build since 1999, limiting its application to projects that are stand-alone structures or off the right-of-way, said Connie Crawford, senior vice president and chief engineer at the agency. Two of the recently completed projects include the Arch Street Yard in Queens and Highbridge Yard in the Bronx, both "background" projects within the multi-billion dollar East Side Access program to bring Long Island Rail Road trains to Manhattan's East Side.
Crawford said that her agency knows that control is the central issue, and that for a design-build project to work, the contractor has to be given considerable leeway.
"So if you're on the railroad right-of-way, it's harder to plan," she added.
Design-build required a culture shift on the part of the agency because once it hands over initial specifications to the design-build team, the owner has little ability to tinker with a plan, Crawford said.
"If the design is one that's going to evolve, design-build is not for you," she said. "If you can't make decisions up front and stick with the plan, you shouldn't use design-build."
Crawford said the scope of the work determines if design-build is viable. For example, the division handles most of its signal replacement and repair jobs through design-build contracts. It has four other active design-build projects ongoing.
Overall, acceptance of design-build has been an uphill climb, said Robert Scancella, an engineer with Site-Blauvelt Engineers of Mt. Laurel, N.J., and president of the design-build institute's Tri-State Metro Chapter.
"The opposition each year is getting a little less," he added. "In some areas we're going to have a fight, but I see [design-build] growing."
By Scancella's estimate, only 15 states were using design-build when he left the New Jersey Department of Transportation for the private sector six years ago. Today, there are only seven that aren't.
Despite its advance in use, design-build will never be a one-size-fits-all solution that delivers reduced construction costs and expedited schedules everywhere, Crawford said.
"Like any construction program, some work as intended and some don't," she added.
But Crawford expects that design-build will continue to pick up steam in her agency and others as owners develop an increased comfort level with it.
"Now we have familiarity with it," she said. "We're not afraid of it. We see it as a viable delivery system."
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