State of Professional Practice for Water Infrastructure Project Delivery
Publication: Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 25, Issue 3
Abstract
Utilities now have a wider selection of project delivery methods to select from based on their project’s unique characteristics and constraints. The objective of this paper is to study alternative project delivery methods (APDM) implementation practices for water infrastructure projects by assessing the state of practice during procurement and execution. Two of the most commonly used APDM, construction management at risk (CMAR) and design-build (DB), are evaluated alongside the traditional design-bid-build (DBB) method. A survey was developed, based on an extensive literature review and support of an industry expert workshop, and collected information from 75 recently completed water and wastewater treatment plant projects. Key findings revealed in this study specific to APDM water infrastructure delivery include (1) guaranteed maximum price (GMP) is the preferred compensation type; (2) qualifications-based is the preferred procurement method; (3) expedited schedule is the highest selection factor; (4) water stakeholders statistically have the lowest comfort level using CMAR; (5) owner involvement in design is lowest for DB projects; and (6) DBB and APDM have similar procurement durations for water infrastructure projects. This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by presenting evidence-based APDM implementation practices that will support utilities with the delivery of their water infrastructure projects.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code used during the study were provided by a third party (e.g., procurement process, compensation types, utility experience). Direct requests for these materials may be made to the provider as indicated in the Acknowledgments.
Acknowledgments
This work is funded by the Water Research Foundation (WRF) Project No. 4685 “Project Delivery Performance Evaluation and Decision Support Tool for Water and Wastewater Capital Projects.” The authors would also like to thank the industry experts who generously provided project data, participated in the workshop, and assisted the authors in testing and validating the survey.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 25 • Issue 3 • August 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 10, 2019
Accepted: Feb 26, 2020
Published online: May 20, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 20, 2020
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