INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING CONSTRUCTION FUNDAMENTALS: IMPLEMENTING DESIGN-BUILD PROJECT DELIVERY PROCEDURES INTO A COURSE IN COST ESTIMATING

摘要

This paper describes the integration of design-build projects during the Fall Semester, 2006, into a cost estimating course in the Department of Engineering Technology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Design-build is a project delivery system with an enviable record of bringing capital facilities on-line rapidly often with reduced overall project costs. Nevertheless, the procedure tends to be associated with higher risk as it radically short-cuts the traditional design-bid-build protocol where the contractor routinely receives an essentially completed design package prior to the development of a detailed estimate. Tradition methods allow a deliberate, independent development of work package quantities, durations, crew development, and assignment of costs. This paper examines the creation of a block of instruction in a conventional cost estimating course that addresses the salient characteristics of the alternative design-build project delivery particularly as it impacts the creation of project cost estimate including: The collaborative relationship between owners, designers, and constructors from initial project development through construction. The use of a general scope of work in the absence of completed designs to support creation of a conceptual estimate that determines total project costs based on: Features that can be readily priced with confidence; Alternatives for features that have yet to be adequately defined.