Study Finds Design-Build Outperforms Design-Bid-Build in Water

Design-build projects in the area of water and wastewater infrastructure have a shorter design and construction cycle than design-bid-build projects and are completed on or ahead of schedule more often that projects pursued using the design-bid-build approach, according to a recent study released by the Water Design-Build Council, Washington, D.C.

On behalf of the council, researchers at the University of New Mexico, the University of Colorado and Iowa State University collected data on 100 water and wastewater projects—69 design-bid-build projects and 31 design-build projects—with total project costs of more than $3 million each and found that design-build outperforms design-bid-build in terms of design and construction cycles without any significant difference in quality.

A summary of the study is available free of charge at www.waterdesignbuild.org.

Source: Environmental Business Journal