Design-Build Legislation - Design-Build for Water and Wastewater Projects - page 35

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Design-Build
Legislation
Richard Thomas, Design-Build Institute of America
Contributing Author: Susan Hines, Design-Build Institute of America
INTRODUCTION
This chapter examines past and future trends in DB legislation at the local, state, and
federal levels. After the historical overview of federal and state legislation authorizing
the use of DB project delivery, several state DB legislative models are examined, and the
challenges and opportunities that each legislative approach presents to owners who are
considering DB for water and wastewater projects are explored.
The use of DB project delivery for water and wastewater plants has grown dramati-
cally over the last five years. All 50 states authorize at least one agency or local government
(e.g., Department of Transportation, Public Works) to procure projects under this alterna-
tive method. The authority to use DB has increased 100 percent since 2005 ( Engineering
News-Record 2010). Design-build authority continues to grow dramatically at the munici-
pal and county level where most water and wastewater projects are delivered. Currently in
a majority of the states, local governments are authorized to use DB, and nearly half of the
DB laws passed in the last two years expanded DB authority at the local level.
A key driver in the rapid ascent of DB at both the federal and the state level was the
1996 passage of the Clinger-Cohen Act. This act revised the Federal Acquisition Regula-
tion (FAR), which sets uniform policies and procedures for acquisition by federal agen-
cies, and effectively eroded statutory barriers to DB at the federal level. States frequently
follow the federal government model when addressing their own policies and procedures,
and this occurred after the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act was passed.
FEDERAL DESIGN-BUILD LEGISLATION
As part of a sweeping effort by the government to streamline acquisitions and delivery
of services, the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 permitted the federal government to award
construction contracts based on best value rather than lowest bid and introduced the
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