Project Delivery Methods – Which one Should you Choose?

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Project delivery methods consist of planning, designing, construction, and other services necessary for organizing, executing, and completing a building facility. It also involves the comprehensive process of assigning the contractual responsibilities for designing and constructing a project. Project delivery methods are designed to achieve the satisfactory completion of a construction project from conception to occupancy. Some vital factors that assist with choosing the right delivery method are project method, design, schedule, risk assessment, owner’s level of expertise.

Types of Project Delivery Methods

Design-Bid-Build

1. This implementation method consists of three distinct project phases; the design phase, the bid phase, and the build phase.
2. The owner will typically be dealing with at least two persons or companies to deliver their completed SCADA system, but sometimes many more than two. There will always be an engineer or other design professional involved.
3. The design-bid-build method requires a set of plans and specifications to be created by an architect or other design professional.
4. The designer needs to finalize every detail of the project before the project is put out for bids.
5. After the completion of these detailed plans and specifications, the owner chooses one of two routes: either purchasing all the equipment directly, then receiving multiple, qualified bids for installation or more simply (and typically) receives bids from multiple, qualified contractors that include the equipment and the installation.
6. Once the project is complete, the owner must pay the contractor the bid amount, plus or minus the net amount of contract change orders.
7. After the owner signs a contract for a bid-build project, they have minimal input in the remaining part of the project, unless there are any unforeseen obstacles or problems. These often result in “change orders,” which tend to be costly, and all parties try to avoid.

Read More: Change Orders in Construction Contracts – Types, Features, and Components

Construction Manager at Risk

1. In CM-at-Risk, the owner will either select the Architect/Engineers first so they can be involved in the selection of the CM or the CM, and the Architect/Engineers will be selected at the same time.
2. The CM would typically assist the Owner and the Architect/Engineers with input on costs, cost-effective construction materials, constructability, scheduling, and sequencing issues throughout the pre-construction design phases.
3. The selection of firms and the attribution of responsibilities is variable and dependent on the level of involvement of the owner as well as the expertise of the designer and construction professional.
4. CM at-risk comes with many variations such as; Program Management, Professional Management, Construction Management, and Professional Construction Management.
5. The difference between these arrangements is a factor of; the expertise of the management team (i.e., whether the company is primarily a designer, a builder, or a management consultant), when the management team is hired (i.e., concept, design. or procurement stage), and what responsibilities the owner assigns to the different parties.
6. As an example, the owner may want assistance through the entire process, from programming right through project completion.
7. This type of assistance would include working with user groups and assisting in designer selection, as well as overseeing the construction phase.
8. In a construction management delivery method, the owner would engage in much of the programming and designer selection alone, and look to the construction manager to do the work.

Design-Build

1. Under this method, the owner generally hires a single entity, the design/builder, to perform both design and construction under a single contract. 2. Parts or all of the design and construction may be performed by the entity or subcontracted to other companies. 3. The method requires exorbitant levels of collaboration between the various disciplines, input from multiple trades into the design, and a single party bearing project risk. 4. Generally, the general contractor is responsible contractually for this delivery method. 5. The pro of using this method is that the owner only has to contact one party that respectively bears sole responsibility for both design and construction.

Integrated Project Delivery

1. In the IPD approach, the owner and the non-owner parties that share risk and reward are all in one unified contract with each other, with rights and responsibilities linked to all of the others. 2. The owner chooses an Architect or Engineer and Construction manager prior to the kickoff of the project design. 3. A joint contract is signed between the parties after goals and objectives are established collaboratively. 4. This delivery method brings early participation from the contractor, who can lead to a streamlined design that is directed specifically towards a project’s objectives. 5. The method provides opportunities for minimizing project costs and increasing efficiency through cooperation of the team members. 6. It is best suited for projects in the private sector that are complex, under a tight schedule, or maybe mostly undefined. Public entities usually cannot use IPD is a delivery method due to the lack of a bidding component.

Public-Private-Partnership (P3)

It is a project delivery method that combines architectural and engineering design services with construction performance under one contract. A private entity or a group of investors provides some or all the needed capital with a commitment and assurance to deliver a completed project for a public sector owner in exchange for profit that the completed facility is anticipated to generate. Also Read: Types of Construction Contracts and Their Comparison Also Read: DESIGN & BUILD CONTRACTS