The History of Design-Build - Design-Build for Water and Wastewater Projects - page 6

there is no cost evaluation. In the second phase, offerors that were selected during the
first phase propose specific technical solutions and prices for the project. Based on an
integrated assessment, a contract is awarded to the most highly qualified DB team based
on the overall highest ranking, taking into consideration qualifications, technical solution,
and cost.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was amended in 1997 to reflect DB proce-
dures. FAR Part 36.3 now provides explicit procedures demonstrating how to solicit, eval-
uate, and award DB contracts in accordance with the 1996 legislation. The intent of the
policy is to ensure an emphasis on identifying the most highly qualified competitors in the
first phase, without requiring the competitors to incur the costs inherent in design work
and cost proposal preparation. Although this process is often referred to as a prequalifica-
tion, ” it is, in fact, not. Prequalification implies that a minimum capability is established
by the owner agency and that all offerors who exceed that minimum are allowed to con-
tinue into phase two competition. Instead, phase one competition is normally used to
identify the most highly qualified competitors, allowing only the most highly qualified to
continue into the phase two competition.
State Law
At the state level, the status and use of DB has been much less clear. The past few years
have, however, seen remarkable changes in legislation among the states. In 1993, there
was only one state, Virginia, that authorized the use of DB for any type of design and
construction project. At that time, the majority of states had legislation that precluded the
use of DB. Since then, there has been steady progress and, by 2010, all 50 states accom-
modated the use of DB to at least some degree. Chapter 4 addresses legislation for DB in
more detail.
International Use of Design-Build
Design-build is widely used internationally. In some markets, such as the water and waste-
water industry of the United Kingdom, DB is a dominant delivery mechanism. Variations
of DB are also common in Australia, Asia, and the Middle East.
The predominance of DB in the international market is reflected in Figure 1-1,
which includes all types of projects. Using 2004 as a base year, the use of DB has rapidly
increased through 2008, more than doubling both domestically as well as internationally.
International growth has been much more rapid than growth within the United States.
This dramatic shift in the use of DB internationally has led some to label the United
States as, “the last bastion of design-bid-build.” This dubious distinction results from the
realization that the United States has fallen behind much of the rest of the world in the
adoption of new project delivery techniques, including DB; DB plus finance, operate and
maintain; and developer-owned leaseback or product-sale arrangements. It is anticipated,
however, that growth of DB in the United States will continue.