City of Tacoma
  Jefferson and Hood Street Surface Water Interceptor

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Selection of Progressive Design-Build

The City of Tacoma, Environmental Services Department has an extensive capital improvement program for publicly owned infrastructure for which it is responsible. Typically, the projects that are part of this program are delivered using traditional design-bid-build (DBB) methods. Although, the City has used alternative delivery methods (ADMs) on a number of large vertical construction projects as well as utility projects in the past. These include the $50 million Union Station Upgrade and Federal Courthouse Construction (design-build), the $70 million Tacoma Convention Center construction, and most recently the $105 M Central Wastewater Treatment Upgrade (fixed price design-build). The City Council and other key City personnel are familiar with alternative delivery concepts and are experienced and supportive of the unique attributes of delivering projects using these non-traditional delivery methods. The City has been approved by Washington State’s Capital Projects Advisory Review Board, consistent with RCW 39.10, to utilize the Design-Build Delivery method as a public body. The City is delivering this project using an ADM for a variety of reasons. After a thorough evaluation of a variety of delivery methods, including DBB, general contractor / construction management (GC/CM), and Design-Build (DB), the City has determined that the Progressive DB delivery method would be best suited to meet the project delivery method goals. The City has identified the following overall goals and objectives related to project delivery methods: •   Single point of responsibility for design and construction; •   Ability to work closely with the design-builder during progression of the design to help ensure development of the best construction methodology for the Project’s specialized nature, and to increase the opportunity for design and construction innovations; •   Earlier cost certainty than the Design-Bid-Build (DBB) process; •   Improved construction risk management; •   Schedule—Equal to or less than DBB Process; •   Development of the Project should incorporate ongoing cost modeling and take a “design-to-budget” approach derived from the overall CIP budget for the Project; •   The delivery process should be structured to provide the flexibility for phased design and construction. During preconstruction, the Designer/Constructor should work with the City to explore the costs and benefits of potentially completing upstream portions of the alignment as an early work phase; •   Project Delivery Team is afforderd an opportunity for a fair profit upon completion of the project; •   Design of the Project should recognize that construction will have impacts on community. Portions of the pipeline alignment run through highly sensitive areas (business, pedestrian, transportation, UW Tacoma corridors); careful coordination will be required. Delivery of the Project should seek to minimize construction disruption in the community to the extent possible. It is the intent of the City that the overall Design-Build approach will emphasize qualifications and experience as a significant part of the designer / constructor selection process. The City believes that the success of the Project depends greatly on the experience and quality of the firms that will design and construct the proposed improvements. In this respect, the City believes the Progressive Design-Build process offers significant advantages over the traditional method of awarding contracts to the low responsive bidder.