ThisWeek CW 02/12/2015
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/02/10/city-will-use-design-build-process-for-new-facility.html
Canal Winchester officials hope a new public works facility will provide a template for faster construction of future city projects.
City Council members voted unanimously Feb. 2 to approve the use of a design-build process for the construction of a new public works facility estimated to cost $3.5 million.
Design-build is a process where the contract is awarded to both the architect and the builder before detailed plans are finalized, thus allowing the builder to participate in those design decisions.
Canal Winchester Construction Services Manager Bill Sims said this is common practice for both private industry and public facility projects.
Councilman Joe Abbott agreed, saying his electrical contracting company projects are about 90-percent design-build.
“Tonight’s approval will just be for this public works facility project, but I’m hoping this will become our template for this type of design-build project, which is better for us on vertical construction projects,” Sims said. “We’ll have up to five design-build contractors to choose from, so it’ll still be very competitive but with some reasonable limits to manage it.”
Sims said normally, the city’s construction projects — most of which have been horizontal, road and park-type projects instead of buildings — proceed in phases, where every detail is worked out ahead of time, leaving little flexibility once construction starts.
“Our normal bid process was that we essentially design every detail up front, and then we move to the next step of putting bid out. Design- build lets those steps overlap,” Sims said. “While we design the details of the project, we can begin the construction phase.
“There’s a cost savings because during the design, by involving the construction contractor, they know where you can save costs on materials or techniques.”
Public Works Director Matt Peoples said he hopes to have bid documents for the new facility out by early March, which would allow enough time to award the project and complete it before fall.
“We’re hoping to award this in another month or so and then we’ll get going right away and hope to be in before the snow flies in November,” Peoples said.