ACEC New York: How to do design-build right - by Jay Simson

Jay Simson, ACEC New York

ACEC New York believes in the value of project delivery systems that guide the design of public and private facilities, are in the best interest of the owner, utilize a Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) procedure for the selection of design professionals, provide unbiased protection for existing and future infrastructure, and protect the health, welfare and life safety of the public. ACEC New York also acknowledges that design-build is an alternative to design-bid-build that is a useful delivery tool to deploy in carefully selected projects.

A New York licensed and registered design firm should be retained to represent the owner throughout the entire project as the owner’s design consultant. The owner’s design consultant should be selected based on their qualifications and experience and should prepare a preliminary, but sufficiently advanced design and bridging contract documents that include performance criteria.

The owner’s design consultant should be retained by the owner to carry out observation of the work and act as a representative of the owner to review and oversee documentation, construction, closeout and design intent compliance.

Selection of Design-Build Team – a Two-Step Process

The design-build team should include a New York-licensed and registered design firm that is independent from the owner’s and should be selected based on qualifications and expertise. The owner should select the design-build team through a Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) process.

Phase I: Following a request for qualifications (RFQ) being issued by the owner, design-build teams are shortlisted and a short list of no more than five teams is recommended. After teams are shortlisted, changing the design firm should be forbidden.

Phase II: When a request for proposal (RFP) is prepared the basis for evaluating best value design-build proposals should be clearly articulated by the owner. Weight of the technical solution should not be less than the weighting given to the price.

In Phase II, a financial stipend should be specified in the RFQ and paid by the owner to those shortlisted teams who submitted compliant proposals but were not selected for the project.

Stipends are a way to encourage innovation and creativity, and the public owner also gets the benefit from all of the competing team’s ideas, not just the successful team. A lump sum amount should be paid, within a reasonable time frame, to all qualified proposers without further audits being required.

Once a design-build project is underway payment schedules need to be fair and equitable. A lump sum should be allocated for design and paid based on percent of design completed on a monthly basis.

The selection process and criteria for evaluation must be clearly stated and transparent. A clear rubric of technical scoring criteria should be included in the RFP. Weight of the technical solution should be equal to the weighting given to the price.

It is important that robust and accurate information pertaining to high risk issues like sub surface conditions, property ROW, 3^rd party utilities and other existing conditions be provided to the design build teams as part of the bridging documents.

If a Project Labor Agreement is going to be assigned it should be announced no later than Letter of Intent. The Resident Engineer Inspection (REI)/Construction Inspection (CI) function on projects should report directly back to the client and should not be contracted through the design builder.

Design-build is a useful project delivery tool for NYC and state agencies and other authorities to have. While not appropriate for every project, design-build can offer innovative design and faster project delivery schedules on certain projects. Transparency and communication are vital to successful design-build collaboration and will guarantee long-term viability of the design-build process.

ACEC New York looks forward to working with our industry partners and state and city public policy makers to expand authorization of design-build in NYS and NYC in 2017 and further refine and enhance its effective use in the future.

Jay Simson, CAE, is the president of ACEC New York, Albany, N.Y.