Holistic Performance Evaluation of Highway Design-Build Projects

Many state transportation agencies (STAs) have adopted alternative contracting methods, including design-build (DB) contracting, to accelerate construction. Although DB has become increasingly common in recent years, very little definitive information is available about its performance with regards to key project performance indicators for highway rehabilitation projects. The lack of holistic quantitative performance assessments may result in STAs being misled when attempting to determine the best procurement methods and techniques for significant projects. This study fills this knowledge gap by using a rich dataset to evaluate the performance of DB contracting. A series of quantitative analyses were conducted to assess the likely effects of DB contracts on key project performance measures such as schedule, cost, and change orders. The results reveal that DB facilitates on-time project completion and results in fewer contract change orders during construction. No strong evidence, which indicates that DB contracts lead to greater cost increases over the traditional method, was found. These findings provide historical data-driven performance results for DB contracting that STAs can reference when evaluating competing contracting methods and techniques for high-impact projects.