DESIGN/BUILD PUBLIC PROJECTS: HAS THEIR TIME COME?

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is experimenting with design/build contracting, which combines in one contract the design, construction and construction inspection for a project. FDOT has let eleven such projects worth $31 million. Nine of these projects have been completed, with what the agency considers outstanding results. Four of the eleven were awarded to contractor-engineer teams that were not low bidders but whose total "score" in the project evaluation was best. This article discusses one of these four, the Ochlockonee Bay Bridge Project. Florida's design-build procedure is similar in many ways to the Federal Highway Administration's Experimental Project 14, in which FHWA has begun to experiment with design-build on certain federal-aid projects. FHWA refers to the project as "innovative contracting". Such projects are often referred to as negotiated contracting.