Construction vets bring design-build to transportation industry

Leading the new venture, C&D Design Build LLC, are Dean Hartman, owner of Hartman Construction, and C. Jay Wynn, owner of CJW Transportation Consultants LLC.

They are leveraging the resources of their respective companies for the partnership venture, Wynn said, though he noted that eventually they’d like C&D to have its own, separate staff.

Design-build construction combines the design and building phases of construction, allowing the designer and builder to work more closely together, which cuts costs and saves time.

Traditionally, on a public building project, a design is approved, and then contractors bid to complete it. The design-build concept differs in that it moves the bid phase forward and places the entire project in the hands of one master builder.

The concept isn’t a new one, according to Walker Lee Evey, president and CEO of the Design Build Institute of America.

“Design build represents the way, traditionally and historically, the vast majority of design and construction has been done for centuries,” Evey said. “Things like the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, all the cathedrals in Europe and the Taj Mahal were built like that. This whole idea of having the master builder, the one individual who is responsible for a project, that’s a concept about as old as construction itself.”

Hartman said cost savings for the public are a key benefit to using design-build construction.

“There are a great deal of change orders that could probably be eliminated,” he said. “Time savings are the other thing. It takes a lot of time to get from saying there’s going be a job until it is actually done. It’ll take two or three things out of the equation if the design firm and the contractor were working together to start with.”

While design-build is more common in construction – comprising about 40 percent of all design and construction work nationwide, according to Evey and DBIA statistics – it is a relatively new concept in transportation. In Minnesota, however, design-build is working well in the transportation sector.

“It’s worked great in Minnesota,” said Jay Hietpas, design-build manager for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. “We are able to deliver some of our high-profile projects faster than we can deliver them through traditional methods. On our traditional projects we are seeing costs go up about 10 percent on average while on our design build projects (we) are only seeing about 2 percent cost growth.”

Douglas D. Gransberg, an associate professor of construction science with the University of Oklahoma, said cost savings wouldn’t be the primary factor in choosing design-build.

“First and foremost the designer has the opportunity to talk to someone who is actually going to do the construction, not somebody who could possibly do the construction,” Gransberg said.

“Often things that cost marginally more will save lots and lots of time, or perhaps reduce lifecycle costs after the project is open. Just from the constructability perspective, there’s an opportunity to do that,” he added.

That time adds up to real savings in a community.

“If a road is producing $10,000 worth of income a day and you bring it on six months early, that’s a lot of money,” Evey said.

The key to making design-build successful in transportation is competition, Wynn and Hartman say, noting that they would like to see 10 competitors in as many years.

“I think there will be a lot more of this going on in the next 10 years, a great deal more,” Hartman said. “I can see where it will take less supervision, less money, less time and everything else to do it this way.”

Right now, the duo is spending as much time selling the design-build concept within the construction industry as selling C&D’s services to potential clients.

“Everybody wants competition,” Hartman said. “Other firms need to be encouraged to do the same thing so we’ll have actual competition out there. Then you would have all the expertise of three or four different firms providing input on the same project.”

Wynn added that just because he and Hartman work together doesn’t mean they aren’t open to other partnerships on projects.

“For example, there are some real good bridge companies in this town and I don’t necessarily design bridges,” Wynn said. “If we wanted to design build a bridge, we could go to that firm or the owner of the project could choose a firm.

“My design percentage may fall from 15 percent to 2 percent, but I’ll still manage the project and they can have Dean build it,” Wynn added.[[In-content Ad]]