Mayor de Blasio today celebrated New York City’s progress in speeding the design and construction of capital projects by using the design-build process. “Design-Build Program 2021: Progress Report to the New York State Legislature,” a new report released today, describes the City’s successful pivot to design-build after decades of stalled progress under the antiquated, costly design-bid-build approach. The City expects design-build to save anywhere from one to three years for large City capital projects currently in the pipeline.
Following several years of City advocacy, the State legislature passed the New York City Public Works Investment Act (PWIA) in December 2019. Since then, agencies have moved quickly to establish their design-build programs, with agencies designating 44 new projects for design-build valued at nearly $8 billion.
“Not every New Yorker is a contracting expert – but when their city pledges to build something, every New Yorker wants it done quickly and efficiently. That’s what design-build has allowed this administration to do, and I’m enormously proud of that progress,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“The report shows that design-build offers a better approach to delivering the City’s multi-billion-dollar annual capital program. For the first time, designers and contractors are able to work together as a team with common business interests right from the beginning of a project,” said Department of Design and Construction (DDC) Acting Commissioner Tom Foley. “It reduces conflict and avoidable delays, and removes us from a one-size-fits-all low-bid system. The early results are in and the time savings are real.”
“Design Build helps the DOT tap into the innovation of the private sector with better control over budgets and schedules. With new federal infrastructure funding available, Design Build will allow us to get projects done faster and at lower costs,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman. “I’d like to thank Mayor de Blasio for championing this method and for our partners in Albany – Senator Leroy Comrie and Assemblyman Ed Braunstein – for passing Design Build legislation.”
Procurement for design-build projects authorized by the PWIA takes place through a two-step process in which interested design-build teams respond to a Request for Qualifications. Responses are reviewed to create a shortlist of firms for each design-build project, who are then asked to respond to a future Request for Proposal for the work. Unlike design-bid-build, design build teams are evaluated not only their price proposal, but also on their actual qualifications to deliver a project.
Today, DDC is well on its way to completing its first design-build project – a parking garage and community space in Queens – by mid-2022, only three years after it started. A similar project would have taken more than seven years under the City’s standard process. The City will begin construction on four additional design build projects in January, shaving at least a year from the project-start-to-construction-
Last month, Mayor de Blasio announced that the new $141 million Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center will be completed two full years faster using design-build than it would have been under prior contracting methods.
Today’s report updates progress on design-build projects in Fiscal Year 2021, which began on July 1, 2020, as well as in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which received special State permission to use design-build in 2018. The report also includes the City’s recommendations for improvements to the PWIA, which expires at the end of 2022.
The report encourages language that will increase flexibility, including the authorization of “Progressive Design-Build,” an approach that that can further reduce risk to City taxpayers by allowing the City and a selected design-build team to carefully plan and scope a project before agreeing to a “guaranteed maximum price” to be completed by the design-build team.
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