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The design-build project delivery method is growing in popularity, with some major federal jobs and private-sector work leading the charge.
"I've seen it grow tremendously in the last couple of decades," said Bob Hopfenberg, vice president of Suitt Construction in Orlando. "The popularity of design-build is due primarily to the speed, cost savings and relationship building that come from it."
Suitt has completed more than 800 design-build projects. It recently finished a 107,000-sq.-ft. design-build training center for JetBlue Airways in Orlando, and the company expected to wrap up work this summer on a $30 million, 300,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing plant and office facilities for Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co. near Liberty, S.C.
Also in South Carolina, Suitt has started a 270,000-sq.-ft., $150 million airplane assembly and integration facility at Charleston International Airport for Global Aeronautica LLC, a joint venture between Alenia North America of Washington, D.C., and Vought Aircraft Industries of Dallas.
Hopfenberg said with speed to market so important, manufacturers often choose design-build.
Betty S. Hearn, president of the Design-Build Institute of America's Southeast Chapter in Atlanta, agreed that industrial facilities are suited to design-build.
"A large or complicated project calls for design-build," she added. "If you're real sensitive about the design or how it will look, then it's usually not a design-build."
Design-build cuts down on change orders and allows for early ordering of equipment and materials, proponents say. Hopfenberg said it can shave 5 to 10 percent off the cost of a project.
However, design-build also requires greater owner involvement up front and shifts risk for accuracy of the drawings to the contractor.
"You have the builder and designer working together, whether the builder or architect is leading the team," said Joanne Carol, senior contract administrator for Orange County, Fla., and president of the Florida chapter of DBIA.
In her role with Orange County, Carol selects design-build teams based on price, qualifications and technical approach. She openly discusses cost and appreciates knowing early in the process whether a project will meet the budget.
"It's an integrated approach, where you get the benefit of teamwork and problem solving in a cooperative environment," Carol said.
Georgia and The Carolinas Hearn said she has noticed an uptick in private design-build projects within the Southeast region, but state design-build projects have been slow to take off. "People like it, but they do not have the liberty in public work to go after it," she added.
Last year, the Georgia Legislature passed a bill allowing the Georgia Department of Transportation to contract for design-build projects.
North Carolina has allowed a few select school districts to construct new buildings using design-build. Design-Build magazine, the official magazine of the DBIA, reported recently that North Carolina Department of Transportation officials are reworking their bid process and plan to award $193 million in design-build contracts during the second half of 2005 and another $136 million in 2006.
In South Carolina, the delivery method is allowed with approval through the state engineer, which is not part of the mainstream, said DBIA Southeast Chapter legislative chair Carl Gebo, a partner with the law firm Powell, Goldstein LLP of Atlanta. However, a couple of high-profile projects, including the new Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, have increased awareness of design-build.
A prime reason South Carolina legislators have not given a green light to design-build projects is because many owners not used to the process shy away from it, Gebo said.
"It is experience driven," he added. He expects that may change as legislators observe local U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' projects successfully completed using the design-build method.
B.L. Harbert International of Birmingham, Ala., has several federal design-build projects under way. It is building the $43 million 16th MP Brigade Complex for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Fort Bragg, N.C.
In June 2003, it began designing a four-story residential building, a two-story battalion headquarters, a single-story brigade headquarters and a two-story public safety service center, and construction commenced six months later. The company expects to complete the project in January.
At Hunter Army Airfield, near Savannah, Ga., B.L. Harbert completed design work in May and immediately began construction on the $15 million, 66,820-sq.-ft. physical fitness center. The company started constructing a $36.7 million barracks complex, with seven three-story buildings, at Fort Stewart, Ga., this spring.
Hensel Phelps Construction Co., of Chantilly, Va., is building a $96 million medium-security federal correctional institution in Butner, N.C., for the Federal Bureau of Prisons of Washington, D.C. Moseley Architects of Richmond, Va., applied for U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for the 16-building project.
Archer Western Contractors of Atlanta leads a design-build team creating a taxiway bridge/highway tunnel at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The $159 million project began in 2002 and is scheduled for completion in 2006.
Florida Life for design-builders is different in Florida.
"Florida is one of the most open states, and we have been doing it for a long time compared to other states," Carol said.
The Florida Department of Transportation typically uses design-build for about 5 percent to 10 percent of its jobs. For instance, in 2003-2004, design-build represented $190 million of the $2.3 billion in work it contracted. The agency contracted for $1.2 billion in design-build contracts between 2000 and 2004.
"Florida does more in number of design-build [projects] than any other state," said Ken Leuderalbert, manager of project management, research and development for FDOT. "It's an excellent tool to get us from concept to concrete very quickly."
He said shifting risk was a benefit FDOT appreciates. A design-build contractor has the freedom to come up with the best construction solution and materials, as long as it meets FDOT standards. FDOT does not use design-build when unknown environmental or utility issues exist or if right-of-way hassles will impede progress.
Current FDOT design-build contracts include the $243 million replacement dual-span Escambia Bay Bridge on Interstate 10 in the Panhandle. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan washed out the existing bridge.
A joint venture between Tidewater Skanska of Virginia Beach, Va., and Flatiron Constructors of Longmont, Colo. - the same team that built the Cooper River Bridge project - received the contract for the four-phase project, which began this year. Completion of both three-lane spans is scheduled for summer 2007.
The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority has programmed $54.6 million for nine design-build projects this year. Community Asphalt Corp. of Hialeah, Fla., began working in 2004 on a $148 million, 4.5-mi. extension of State Road 836 from 107th Avenue to 137th Avenue for the expressway authority. The project includes nine street bridges and is on schedule for completion in 2007.
Also, the City of Cape Coral, Fla., awarded MWH Constructors of Broomfield, Colo., a $476.5 million, seven-year design-build contract to extend water, wastewater and irrigation utility lines, upgrade the capacity of a water-treatment plant, and slip line sewer pipes to eliminate stormwater intrusion into the wastewater lines.
These represent just a few of the design-build projects under way in the Southeast. "It's catching on more and more," Hopfenberg said. "With design-build you're guaranteed you're going to rock and roll from day one."
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