With projects facing rising material costs, crunched schedules and labor shortages, project delivery firms say owners are finding themselves at a fork in the road when it comes to design-bid-build versus alternative delivery models. Risks are inherent to any project, but more owners are turning to alternative delivery to reap the rewards of early collaboration.

For ENR Top 100 Project Delivery Firms, revenue for both design-build and construction management-at-risk (CMAR) delivery methods rose last year—design-build rising 2.51% to $100.22 billion and CMAR rising slightly less at 1.68% to $150.79 billion. But beyond the numbers, Top 100 firms share that there is a gradual shift in the way owners are putting together project teams.

许多公司报告称，业主越来越多地看到早期合作的好处，因此，许多公司报告说，替代了重新配置风险的替代项目交付方法。但是，随着AEC公司在繁忙的建筑市场中继续导航供应链中断，成本波动和竞争，“问题是我们的行业如何计算所有未知风险？”DPR Construction总裁兼管理委员会成员George Pfeffer询问。

理解风险和创建contingencies is an essential part of the project delivery process, says Pfeffer. “It takes proper planning to head [risks] off,” he says, explaining that DPR is “more cautious” with low-bid/lump-sum procurement models. When it comes to owners, a major “mind shift” is needed to “approach risk in new ways,” he says.

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Balancing Risks v. Rewards

Early collaboration isn’t without its barriers, such as a perception of lack of value, “especially among stakeholders,” says Pfeffer. DPR has seen the most success with owners bringing contractors and subcontractors into the process immediately after schematic design, he explains.

从本质上说,“完成得当,它将删除标志ificant level of the unknown risks that exist in the traditional process,” he says, “leading to a much better final product.”

From a construction contract standpoint, complex projects will tend to benefit more from getting builders involved early on, says Brian Perlberg, senior counsel for construction law and contract documents at the Associated General Contractors of America.

AGC没有在项目交付方法上立场，但佩尔伯格说：“ CMAR提供的最有吸引力的好处之一是它促进了总承包商的早期参与。”

Only 34% of mid-tier Top 100 firms (those ranked between Nos. 26 and 75) saw an increase in revenue when compared to firms in the same positions last year. CMAR revenue for those firms roughly ranged between $500 million and $1.5 billion. For firms ranked in the Top 25, 68% performed better than firms last year, and 76% of bottom tier firms (ranked between Nos. 76 and 100) performed better than previously ranked firms.

Still, total revenue for CMAR firms was below pre-pandemic levels. Median CMAR revenue was down 4.9% to $737.8 million, the lowest its been since 2017.

建立牢固的关系

斯托首席执行官鲍勃·穆伦（Bob Mullen）说，使用综合项目交付（IPD）在费城的15亿美元宾夕法尼亚州医疗保健塔上是Sto Building Group的建筑服务部门的先例项目，LF Driscoll说。

“The partnership and shared vision from the beginning undoubtedly created a culture of collaboration that translated into a hugely successful project,” he says. “From clients to design partners, everyone agrees that early collaboration saves time and creates better end product.”

18luck官网需要快速跟踪到铲子就绪阶段的项目也可以从IPD和Design-Build等交付模型固有的早期协作方法中受益。作为一家同时使用CMAR和设计构建方法的公司，Mullen解释说，Sto通过内部“ GO或No-Go流程”将每个项目都考虑在内，以密切检查风险，负债，并推荐最佳的交付方法。

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“Our legal, compliance, risk and safety teams evaluate any risk and liabilities,” he says. “We then negotiate the contractual language to mutually acceptable terms and implement any compliance and safety protocols,” including specific insurance coverages, as needed.

Mullen emphasizes that building strong subcontractor relationships and encouraging early identification of jobsite issues is also paramount to managing risks.

除了与分包商的早期合作外，Opus Design Build LLC总裁兼首席执行官汤姆·贝克尔（Tom Becker）表示，设计建造使该公司能够应对供应链的挑战，这些挑战可能会威胁到时间表。

“Especially for the industrial sector, lead times for key materials have been greatly extended due to supply chain constraints,” he says, adding that industrial users tend to have tight timelines for getting into their new space.

“For some projects, we have been able to circumvent supply delays by estimating and pre-purchasing materials before design documents are complete, guaranteeing production slots and timely material delivery,” says Becker. “Opus delivers the vast majority of our projects on a design-build delivery model, so it’s not an alternative for us. It’s part of our DNA.”

Not So ‘Alternative’ Anymore

The last 16 months have been one of the most successful legislative periods in the history of the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), a collective of AEC professionals, firms and academics that studies and advocates for more design-build authority in states. According to DBIA CEO Lisa Washington, there have been more than 400 bills during that period across 48 states to preserve, protect or expand design-build authority at the state and local level.

华盛顿说：“在允许设计建造的地方，我们正在看到该权力扩展到更多的公共机构，实体和部门。”

随着基础设施投资和就业法案将在基础设施项目中分配1.2万亿美元，华盛顿认为，各州正在准备迅速使项目迅速摆脱困境。18luck官网

“Research has validated again and again that design-build is faster,” says Washington. “But also just the construction speed. Research has said that it is really twice as fast as design-bid-build and about 60% faster as CMAR. And that speed has been noted as one of the primary reasons that owners tend to gravitate toward design-build.”

今年，36家最佳设计建设公司的收入高于去年排名的公司。这些公司中有22家在排名前100名的设计建设公司列表（第二四分位数）中排名第26至50，这使公司报告的公司在2022年列表中报告了约5亿至10亿美元的设计建设收入。