TABLE OF CONTENTS Design-build and single-source responsibility contracting has been a small but enduring aspect of the American design and construction industry despite the ascendance of design-bid-build during the Industrial Revolution. Although the use of the design-build method ebbed further in the years following World War II, design-build was still the method of choice for some firms in the power, process, and industrial/distribution sectors. With design-build found only in isolated market niches, the focus of most laws and practices was the so-called traditional design-bid-build process. Laws, regulations, procurement procedures, customs, and educational programs all evolved around the linear, sequential process of design-bid-build.
The following 10 challenges are discussed in this chapter:
The cultural chasm
Legal and regulatory barriers
Complexity of the process
Changes in the marketplace; changes in roles
Availability of industry products and services for design-build
Identity of design-builders
Education and training
Exploding the persistent myths
Permitting the design-build project
Removing barriers to design-build
Construction is arguably the most observed of all occupations. Everyone seems to love to watch the frenetic activity on a construction site, no matter what is being constructed: a road project, a deep foundation for a massive skyscraper, or the creation of a new reservoir and pumping station. Whatever the activity, construction stirs the imagination; as designers and construction personnel, piles of materiel and fascinating machines converge to deliver a new facility.
What is in the public s mind, though, when they think of how the products, personnel, and machines were assembled to...
