Options for Evaluating Design-Builder Proposals - Design-Build for Water and Wastewater Projects - page 212

owners are familiar with this procurement method. For the DB project delivery method,
however, there is no completed design from which to develop a reliable bid estimate,
which can make price-based procurement difficult to implement. While data from the
water and wastewater industry are lacking, a study of DB projects in the transportation
industry showed that 30 percent of owners were using price-based procurement for DB
projects (Shane et al. 2006). All other owners in this study were using a best-value pro-
curement method. Much of the use of price-based procurement is driven by state laws that
may require construction services to be procured by low bid.
Best-Value Procurement
The best-value selection (BVS) method is a process in which both price and qualifications
are considered in the evaluation and selection process (see Figure 17-1). The use of BVS is
suited to DB projects, because it incorporates the technical information from QBS, which
has traditionally been used to select design-only firms, and the transparency of price-
based procurement, which has traditionally been used to select construction services.
Based on case studies of several water and wastewater DB projects, BVS is recommended
as a best practice (Molenaar et al. 2004).
Similar to QBS, the BVS process can be conducted in one or two steps, although
a two-step process has been shown to produce lower cost growth and lower schedule
growth in a project (Molenaar and Bogus 2000). In general, BVS requires proposers to
submit separate technical and price proposals. The BVS method includes a variety of
approaches for evaluation and award of proposals (NCHRP 2006). Three key concepts to
BVS - evaluation criteria, evaluating rating systems, and award algorithms—are described
in the next sections.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
In BVS, the evaluation criteria will form the basis of the evaluation and award plan. Evalu-
ation criteria include those factors that add value to the procurement and should consider
project characteristics and market characteristics. These factors generally fall into one of
four categories: qualifications and performance; technical design; cost; and time. For QBS
selection, only those criteria in the qualifications and performance category would be used.
Qualifications and Performance
The qualifications and performance category typically includes criteria such as qualifica-
tions of the personnel on the DB team, past performance of the organizations on the DB
team on a similar project or on previous projects with the owner, and plans for how to
execute the project. Industry experts agree that project success depends on access to the
most qualified personnel and by considering qualifications and performance as an evalu-
ation criterion, owners are able to restrict competition to those who have a proven record.
The key to applying the qualifications and performance criteria in the evaluation and
award process is how to rate them in a justifiable and defensible manner. Owners should
be aware that narrow and unrealistically restrictive qualifications and performance crite-
ria can create barriers to DB teams interested in participating in the competition. These