D-B: Focus on Process & Results

摘要

"We're considering using design-build." Not long ago, this statement may have elicited surprise and skep-ticism. But after more than a decade of successes and disappointments with design-build (D-B), this once "alternative" delivery method has overtaken the "conventional" design-bid-build approach. Today, the federal government is using D-B fairly routinely. How has acceptance of D-B occurred so quickly? One explanation is that federal agencies realized that putting the lowest cost above all else does not always produce the best result. Also, other realizations became equal if not more predominate factors, among them, time, quality and the complexities of managing and funding projects. Agencies found that D-B produced the same quality, if not better, sooner. Time and experience also proved that D-B can be used for projects both conventional and complex; whether a basic storage building or a specialized research facility. Owners need only set the targeted results and identify the D-B team best qualified to deliver them. And finally, agencies came to recognize the imponderables of funding. Because design and construction funds come from separate sources, most projects had to be authorized twice. Oftentimes they got less money than the total needed to fulfill all objectives. D-B money comes entirely from construction funds.