A comparison of design-bid-build and design-build project delivery methods on military construction projects

The US Army Corps of Engineers has adopted the design-build project delivery method as a means to produce military facilities faster and cheaper. An analysis was conducted on 119 military construction projects executed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. While design-build awards may be made earlier in the delivery of military construction projects the design-build project delivery method was shown to have larger contract time growth compared to design-bid-build projects. Military design-build projects experienced a lower total cost of change orders as well as a reduced change order cost associated with field changes.; Finally, statistical analysis demonstrated that no significant difference existed in design-build performance based on the type of facility being constructed. This result indicates that the design-build project delivery method will work equally well on all types of military construction projects.