Big design-build infrastructure projects often turn out to be money-losers for design-build contractors, preventing contractors from covering their overhead, much less earning a profit, according to a new study. Large highway and bridge projects, many involving public-private partnerships, are the least profitable of all infrastructure work.
Carried out by Travelers National Construction Services Surety team, the study looked at 224 highway, bridge, rail, transit and tunnel projects with different project delivery methods from 2004 to 2020. All projects had contract values between $250 million and $4 billion and almost all were projects on which Travelers had been the surety or co-surety.
该研究发现，在10个设计建设项目中有4个以上，设计建造承包商未能支付其成本。18luck官网18luck.cub新利luck这项研究称18luck官网新利luck
“If the contractor had design liability, in general the average profit margin fell by 77%,” says Stan Halliday, chief underwriting officer for Travelers contract surety.
公私伙伴关系表现最差。Halliday说：“我的理解是，业主在此类项目中看到了设计建造，几乎完全是承包商的风险转移机制，而且效果不佳。”18luck官网
With Congress now weighing a big infrastructure funding measure, Halliday says that “if P3s are part of it, we have to rethink what we are doing. Contractors are aware of the problems but I’m not sure the owners believe them.”
There is a recent possible example, not mentioned in the study summary.
一支由Kiewit领导的团队在纽约和新泽西州港口管理局的联邦法院，他在新泽西州和纽约州史坦顿岛之间的15亿美元替代Goethals桥上有争议的费用，工作于2018年完成，Kiewit估计已估计18luck.cub与该机构拒绝支付的该项目的费用相关的1亿美元索赔。18luck.cub
其基础设施研究和结果的旅行者研究方法的完整副本尚未公开，但本月发布的摘要呼应了对设计建设的先前研究。新利luck这些研究表明，为了在大项目上取得良好的成果，设计建造必须以协作精神进行，并通过对合同条款进行共同的解释以及经验丰富的团队负责工作。18luck官网
Halliday says that in CM/GC arrangements, where the construction manager provides a price guarantee, and progressive design-build procurement models, work better. Those delivery methods usually involve the contractor or design-builder in the earliest phases of design development so that it can set the guaranteed maximum price at 50% to 75% or higher of the design.
Halliday说：“承包商发现他们无法以30％的设计提供价格。”“这只是不起作用。填充不足会导致许多主张。”
According to Travelers' study, CM/GC contracts "produce few if any unresolved claims and under-billings on infrastructure work, allowing contractors to make their expected profit.”
Halliday补充说：“工作按时完成，没有任何争议。”
Response to Design-Build Problems
美国设计建造学院首席执行官丽莎·华盛顿（Lisa Washington）指出，复杂的大型项18luck官网目的预算过高并超出了时间表，这是许多原因。并非所有人都可以追溯到设计构建。
But the Travelers study is another example that design-build "is not a panacea," says Washington, and must be executed with the proper amount of collaboration and experienced leadership in order to fulfill its promise.
"A mind-shift is needed. It’s a mindset as well as a contract," she adds.
为了解决潜在的缺陷,DBIA has had a "design-build done right" educational initiative since 2014 and this year will be exploring in its programs where design-build was done wrong.
Travelers, too, believes some of the poor results are due to on contractors' underestimating the risks on some of these mega-procurements.
But the infrastructure study is important, Travelers says in a statement released with its study summary, because work should be done in a way that minimizes disputes, provides greater certainty about timely completion, best protects taxpayer dollars "and allows the contractors to have a reasonable chance of achieving an acceptable financial return."
