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Progressive design in construction continues to gain momentum in the United States, especially in California, according to panelists at the 2023 Design-Build Expo and Conference in Washington, DC, last week.
“We introduced more than 160 design-related bills,” said DBIA Director Richard Thomas, who described efforts to introduce legislation that would allow public agencies to use the procurement method. “The industry standard is 25%, only about 25% of invoices that come in are approved. We had a 78% success rate, it’s amazing.”
The panel included both Mike Meredith, vice president and director of design and construction programs at Vanir Construction, a construction company based in Sacramento, Calif., and Praful Kulkarni, director of integrated services at CannonDesign, an architecture firm and architecture based in New York City. an engineering firm, two construction executives who played a crucial role in passing California Senate Bill 706 in 2023.
This bill expands the authority for the use of progressive design and construction by state and local agencies in California. For example, CalTrans and several water agencies throughout the Golden State are increasingly adopting the project delivery method.
Legislation in California
To pass this bill, DBIA brought together a coalition of stakeholders, including several counties, school districts, and government agencies. Meredith also engaged in extensive education and outreach, not only within the design community, but also with committee staff and legislators. In addition, Meredith explained that it was essential to demonstrate the benefits of progressive design-build and how it had already been successfully implemented in other states.
“Being able to reach out to the different stakeholders who historically supported us or needed to be informed about what’s progressive gave us the opportunity to lay the groundwork,” Meredith said. “That’s how we got started.”
Progressive design-build refers to a project delivery method that uses a criteria based on qualifications, followed by a process in which the owner negotiates a design price and contract directly with the construction team. This means that the owner usually retains the designer early in the life of the project and, in some cases, before the design has been developed.
The designers then deliver the project in two distinct phases. The first phase includes budget-level design development, pre-construction services and the negotiation of a firm contract price, while the second phase involves final design, construction and commissioning, according to the Design-Build Institute of America.
The method differs from design-bid-build projects, where owners hire designers and builders independently. With a progressive design-build contract, however, the owner initiates a single build with a designer-builder to design and complete the preconstruction tasks.
According to DBIA, using a progressive design and construction method:
- Streamlines and simplifies the hiring process.
- It allows the owner to provide substantial input into design and purchase decisions.
- Shorten the overall project schedule with a faster procurement process and the opportunity to use work packages early in the work stage.
- It reduces the owner’s pressure on the time required to review and act on design submissions.
Along with California, other states are also starting to recognize the benefits of this approach for larger, riskier projects, said Vince Campanella, vice president of operations for Lydig Construction, a construction company based in Spokane Valley, Wash. . Campanella has completed $500 million in public and private design and construction projects with Lydig, and nearly $750 million in design and construction projects over the course of his career.
Progressive design construction in action
For example, the board of directors of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority approved a $819 million design-build contract in October for the construction of the Potomac River Tunnel, the largest ever awarded by the authority. In Terre Haute, Ind., battery parts producer Entek selected Chicago-based Clayco as the design-build contractor for its $1.5 billion lithium battery separator facility.
Other states with recent design initiatives include Illinois, Tennessee, Louisiana, Minnesota, Virginia, West Virginia and New York, according to the DBIA.
But problems remain with the progressive design and construction method, Meredith said.
Unions often scrutinize legislation for any potential impact on their workforce. In the case of SB 706 in California, the bill included requirements for project labor agreements and mandates for skilled and trained labor, said Beau Biller, a lobbyist with Platinum Advisors who focuses on local government clients, engineering , traffic, water and energy.
“This may not be desirable for many cities,” Biller said. “Especially if they’re remote and it’s difficult for property owners or public entities that have to go and execute work and try to comply with that particular piece of legislation.”
Other potential obstacles to progressive design construction include:
- Some owners consider awarding a construction contract without full price competition to be politically impractical and prefer to consider price in the selection process.
- Procurement regulations may require subcontractors to be hired competitively. This can limit collaboration and deprive the project of the subcontractor’s valuable input during the design process.
- Homeowners may feel that the best value design and build process is already working well and there is no need to try another construction method.
However, DBIA continues to have success with the legislation. In 1993, when DBIA was established, only three states authorized design and construction. Today, 48 states have granted design and construction methods, Thomas said.
“We had a record number of bills passed in California and we had a record number of progressive design bills,” Thomas said. “We had historic funding for infrastructure and we were successful in most of these large builds to include design and build provisions.”
