Advisory for Differing Procurement Approaches

Advisory for Differing Procurement Approaches

The City of Anywhere, USA has two public high schools, both of which need critical classroom expansions and extensive repairs for its aging infrastructure and building conditions. The board of education is tasked with selecting the best procurement and project delivery procedures to get the schools designed and built. The program has not been fully budgeted at this time, but early cost estimates place project costs in the range of $75,000,000. In addition, it has been 20 years since the school district has been involved with a major capital construction program. Furthermore, its previous experience with a PDS has been limited to the traditional design-bid build, lump sum delivery system. The board’s planning committee is very inexperienced with processes related to the design and construction of major school projects. The ad hoc committee is composed of representatives from the faculty, staff, board of education, parents and community persons working with the school district.
The school district’s planning committee has contracted with a local program management (PM) firm to serve as the owner’s representative for the building program. You are the designated project executive for the PM. And while the project is considered a public works program, relatively new state laws allow for a variety of project delivery systems (PDS) to be used to design and construct the building additions and renovations. Procurement options include designbuild-build (DBB), design-build (DB), agency construction management (CM), and construction management at risk (CMR). The initial task for the firm is to fully explain the options (pros and cons) to the planning committee and to make a PDS recommendation. Thus, a recommendation to depart from the traditional DBB method of project delivery will take a well-documented reasoned evaluation and presentation from the PM.
B. Situational Case Study No. 1 Questions
1. The key issue to address is why the school district should depart from the traditional form of project delivery. Inexperienced public owners appropriately are hesitant to take on risks that are not fully understood. Define the pros and cons of each PDS and provide a persuasive reasoning for why or why not the PDS may be appropriate for this project.
2. Finally a consensus needs to be sought by the planning committee and the board of education. They will rely upon the recommendation of the PM to the board of education that they can understand, accept and defend to their constituents. Make a case and recommendation for the PDS that is the most appropriate for the project.
A. Design-Bid-Build
1. Pros
2. Cons
B. Design-Build
1. Pros
2. Cons
C. CM as Agent
1. Pros
2. Cons
D. CM at Risk
1. Pros
2. Cons
E. Project Delivery Recommendation