|
The costliest highway project in Louisiana's history is providing the ultimate testing grounds for the design-build process. Still, state highway officials expect the new St. Francisville Bridge to finish much earlier than it would have with traditional design-bid-build.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is finding that regardless of the benefits of the design-build method of project delivery, its first application is a complex learning process.
The $240 million Mississippi River Bridge at St. Francisville/New Roads is DOTD's first big-dollar project to use the method.
"The procurement and selection process is from my view very complicated," said William H. Temple, chief engineer. "Still, design-build is seen as a positive trend in procuring public works projects and Louisiana, like other states, wants to be progressive. If there are any benefits to be had by using this method, we would like to partake of them."
Design-build's first large-scale highway application was in Utah, when that state's transportation department wanted to expedite numerous projects in time for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Several states have since successfully utilized the method and time savings is the most commonly cited benefit.
"The average time span from conception to delivery is seven years for a project using the traditional design-bid-build method," said Derrell Cohoon, CEO of Louisiana Associated General Contractors. "With design-build, projects can be delivered more quickly." Cohoon said the process needs safeguards to guarantee it is open to competition and public scrutiny.
The Federal Highway Administration defines design-build as "a method of project delivery in which the design and construction phases are contractually integrated activities of the project development process." The term can also be used to encompass services in addition to design and construction, such as maintenance, operations and finance (for example, design-build-maintain, design-build-operate-maintain and design-build-finance).
AGC's membership was initially opposed to using design-build in highway construction when the federal government approved it as a delivery method in the early 1990s.
But the membership recently embraced the concept because it believes the faster delivery will ultimately bring more work to the state, Cohoon said.
"A couple years ago, we got a group of people in a room - small, medium and large contractors - and it was surprising how much opinions had changed," he said. "I think they are frustrated that it takes so long to move projects. Interestingly, smaller contractors are also saying they want an opportunity to perform design-build because they can be more involved in the entire process."
Design-build doesn't lend itself to every type of project, Cohoon added.
"I have talked to my counterparts around the country and most everyone agrees that most of design-build involves structures," said Don Weathers, executive director of Louisiana Asphalt Pavement Association. "There hasn't been much design-build involved in pavements, except when it's something to do with private financing and toll roads."
Tony Ducote, bridge engineer administrator with the DOTD said design-build is particularly suitable for three applications.
"The Florida DOT has used it successfully on bridge replacements where they wanted to expedite the time frame," he said.
Design-build has been an effective alternative for large, urban interstate reconstruction projects, where traffic control is complicated, and when building toll facilities, Ducote added.
In 1998, the Louisiana Legislature approved the method specifically for three small projects valued at a maximum of $500,000, Ducote said. That was amended in 1999 to one pilot project not to exceed $5 million.
"We had a couple of candidates for that when the legislation was amended in 2003," he said. "That changed the rules and procurement process, added the St. Francisville Bridge project and kept an additional pilot project not to exceed $5 million."
The DOTD had previously earmarked a $4 million bridge replacement over the Tensas River in Franklin Parish as the pilot design-build project.
"With the legislation changed, the department decided to concentrate its resources on the St. Francisville project," Ducote said.
DOTD and AGC designed a two-tiered selection system that requires third-party reviews at both the proposal and bid phases.
"There is a big difference between handling public and private projects," said Steve Cumbaa, contract services engineer administrator with DOTD. "We have to maintain a level playing field (for competing contractors) and we have to be sure we are doing everything fairly and competently. Not only is the project complex, but the process of establishing all of the guidelines is complicated."
Design-build requires a greater commitment of resources at the front end of a project but would be particularly suited to any large public works project, Cumbaa said.
"I believe if it's successfully procured and contracted, we should use it again, but with better legislation," he added.
The process needs some fine-tuning but no one at DOTD nor the joint venture groups that have been shortlisted to bid on the St. Francisville Bridge project will give any specifics. Recently introduced legislation indicates some frustration on the part of some legislators, who would like to use the faster delivery method if the kinks could be worked out, LAPA's Weathers said.
Still, the entire procurement process for the St. Francisville project, which was envisioned to take about a year, was faster than it would have taken the DOTD to complete designs, Ducote said.
"The department's goal was to get traffic on the bridge sooner than we would with design-bid-build."
With the approved contractor likely to begin work on the bridge by 2006, it looks like the project will meet the 2010 completion date, a year or two faster than it would have taken with the traditional delivery method.
"Legally, there are so many bases to cover on this first, complicated project," Ducote said. "But we're optimistic that we will learn what we need to and establish a proven system that works."
|
print this page
e-mail this page
