Critical Comparison of Progressive Design-Build and Construction Manager/General Contractor Project Delivery Methods

Progressive design-build (PDB) is an emerging variation of alternative contracting methods (ACMs) in the highway construction industry. It is widely used in water/wastewater and airport projects, but it is new to federally-funded highway projects. A few state department of transportations (DOTs) have begun to experiment with the method, using their experience with qualification-based selection (QBS) and a subsequent negotiated construction price from construction manager/general contractor (CMGC) contracting. There has been little written that provides guidance to public highway agencies who are interested in implementing PDB. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to first describe the mechanics of PDB project delivery to provide consistent foundation information from which DOTs can inform their decision as to when to use it. The paper also provides a comparative analysis of PDB with CMGC and finds that they are nearly identical with regard to format, differing only in whether the owner retains the design responsibility in CMGC or assigns it to the design-builder in PDB. It also finds that PDB is more appropriate than traditional design-build (DB) for projects in which the owner needs to engage the design-builder in the preliminary engineering and environmental permitting process.