Effect of Duration of Design–Build Procurement on Performance of Transportation Projects

Transportation agencies are increasingly interested in new strategies for integrated project delivery, such as design–build. When making a decision between a traditional design–bid–build delivery and an integrated project delivery such as design–build, the agency should consider potential cost savings, time savings, and quality improvements. To maximize the success of design–build projects, transportation agencies need to pay attention to several aspects of this system, including initial steps like contract procurement. Agencies should prepare for the procurement phase carefully on the basis of project size, complexity, timing, selection methods, and so on. This is especially important for design–build projects in which participating firms invest significant effort during the contract procurement phase while planning design and construction and assessing risks. To assist in improving the success of design–build projects, a study was conducted to analyze the relationship between duration of the contract procurement phase and project performance. Schedule growth, cost growth, and total project time growth were used to measure project performance in the study. Linear regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between procurement duration and each of the three project performance factors. The results show a strong linear correlation between procurement duration and schedule growth. Longer procurement duration correlates less with schedule growth as a percentage of the total project schedule. There is no evidence to indicate that longer procurement duration will reduce cost growth. This research strongly suggests that providing additional time to contractors during procurement allows them to improve schedule performance.