Background

The use of alternative contracting methods (ACMs) has accelerated the delivery of highway design and construction projects.  The changes have come through the innovative efforts of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and departments of transportation (DOTs) around the county over the last 30 years. Led by documented successes on large, high-profile projects such as I-15 in Utah, the Intercounty Connector in Maryland and the Sellwood Bridge in Oregon, ACMs have resulted in shorter project delivery times with less disruption to the travelling public.  The use of ACMs is becoming commonplace, but not just for large projects.  Our data show that almost half of the states are routinely using ACMs on projects less than $20 million in value.

The innovative efforts of the FHWA and state DOTs should not be underestimated.  The development of ACMs such as design-build (D-B) and construction manager/general contract (CM/GC) requires significant procedural and cultural changes on the part of agency staff and the construction industry.  Therefore, it is not surprising that initially DOT ACM manuals and national research efforts have focused on the early project phases, namely procurement and project delivery method decisions.  A review of current ACM manuals reveals only a few manuals that address contract administration processes in detail, with the New York State DOT (NYSDOT) and Minnesota DOT (MnDOT) being perhaps two of the best examples.  Similarly, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Guide for D-B Procurement and the Guidebook for CM-GC Contracting primarily focus on setting projects up for success by focusing mostly on the pre-award phases of the process.

Therefore, NCHRP recently funded research to address the need for national guidance on ACM contract administration. Our team successfully completed the research and published the guidebooks in 2020. We worked with more than 100 engineers and project managers in dozens of highway agencies and a distinguished panel of alternative contracting methods (ACM) experts to develop the new guidebooks, which are now supporting agencies across the nation administer their design-build (D-B) and construction manager-general contractor (CM-GC) transportation projects. These documents include more than 30 successful practices and tools for agencies to use, organized along a typical project lifecycle.

NCHRP is providing all state highway agencies with an opportunity to receive training on D-B and CM-GC project administration and use of the new guidebooks. The training will take place over 8 sessions, each lasting 2 hours, and which will take place every other week between August and December 2022.