Engaging a DB Consultant for Design-Build Projects - Design-Build for Water and Wastewater Projects - page 134

Evaluating Design-Build Consultants
There are a variety of factors that owners can consider when evaluating DB consultants
for a DB project. Many of the factors will be directly related to the requirements of the
DB project. When evaluating the DB consultant's experience, in addition to the experi-
ence with other DB project deliveries, the owner should consider the experience with
water or wastewater projects that are of similar cost and complexity to the owner's DB
project. In addition, a major consideration should be the DB consultant's experience with
direct communications with an owner's policy board, council, or the public, if that will
be required.
Another consideration should be the DB consultant's experience with DB in a given
state, because DB procurement must comply with state laws or codes. The procurement
advisor on the DB consultant's team needs to have an understanding of the spectrum of
alternative project delivery methods and options to help the owner develop an approach
that is the “best-fit” for the project and the owner's goals. The DB consultant must also
have an understanding of how to deliver the project with the optimal balance of design
information with performance and technical specifications. To meet the owner's goals and
specific needs requires achieving the right balance of performance versus prescriptive
project criteria, which only comes from experienced DB professionals who can develop
and execute effective DB planning and procurement.
Owners should carefully review the qualifications of firms proposing to be the DB
consultant. General municipal law or general engineering design firms may not have
experience with the myriad of distinctly difference matters that routinely occur on DB
projects. A management view that these legal and consulting specialties are commodities
often leads to problems with DB project implementation.
REFERENCES
Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA). 2001. Design-Build Manual of Practice, Docu-
ment Number 102, Design-Build Definitions. Washington, D.C.: DBIA, www.dbia.org.
DBIA. 2010. Design-Build Manual of Practice, Document Number 202, Competitive Acqui-
sition of Design-Build Services: The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and Request for
Proposals (RFP) Processes. Washington D.C.: DBIA, www.dbia.org.
Water Design-Build Council (WDBC). 2010. The Municipal Water and Wastewater Design-
Build Handbook, 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Water Design-Build Council.