On December 11th, Engineering News-Record collaborated with Risk Strategies to host an in-depth webinar, Progressive Design-Build (PDB): The Right Solution?
Industry thought leaders David J. Hatem (MG+M), Mike Johnson (Kiewit), Carl Munkel (Gresham Smith), and Donna Hunt from Risk Strategies, explored how progressive design-build could positively impact the A/E/C industry.
What is progressive design-build?
The traditional design-build (DB) method often leads to significant issues on large infrastructure projects. This can result in cost overruns and negligent design claims, and has historically led to a hardened insurance and surety market with reduced availability and capacity.
Progressive design-build (PDB) is an alternative delivery method that integrates owner, contractor, and design team early in the design development process, creating a more collaborative environment. It also improves cost certainty and balanced risk allocation, and addresses long-standing hurdles associated with conventional delivery models.
Unlike traditional DB, which often forces fixed-price commitments early in the design process, PDB takes a phased approach:
- Phase 1 involves project scoping, preliminary design, and cost estimating with extensive owner and design-build team involvement.
- Phase 2 locks in a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) based on construction documents that are at least 60% complete.
This model allows for cost certainty, better risk management, and flexibility to make mid-project changes based on budget, scope, or other factors.
What are the benefits of progressive design-build?
Adopting PDB for large and complex projects has several advantages:
Early contractor involvement
By involving contractors during early design stages, PDB enables better alignment between design intent and project scope, budget, and schedule realities. This approach minimizes surprises and avoids the inefficiencies seen in traditional DB, where design and construction can operate in silos.
Risk management
Conventional DB often transfers disproportionate risk to contractors. This is because they must commit to a fixed price based on very preliminary designs and limited site or project data, leaving them vulnerable to risks on design development, unforeseen changes, and cost overruns. This can result in disputes, delays, and inflated costs.
PDB mitigates these issues through shared risk registers, transparent cost reviews, and collaborative decision-making in which the owner is involved throughout. Traditional design-build offers owners cost certainty by requiring contractors to provide a GMP when designs are only 30% complete. However, this exposes contractors to significant risk, making costly claims and disputes almost unavoidable.
Improved project schedules
PDB dramatically shortens procurement durations compared to traditional DB. Data from The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) shows that average project durations under PDB are significantly reduced, with projects often completed in as little as half the time as compared to traditional DB. For more information, watch the webinar.
Flexibility
Owners can "off-ramp" if disagreements arise during Phase 1, reducing the risk of being locked into unfavorable contracts. The process encourages collaboration rather than adversarial relationships for all parties involved, resulting in fewer disputes over changes or unexpected conditions.
Favorable insurance and surety environment
Traditional design-build methods are riddled with disproportionate risk transfer, undefined project scopes, and frequent claims. This hardened the insurance and surety market and reduced capacity. PDB’s collaborative and phased approach improves insurance and surety availability by fostering better risk management and transparency. Insurers are adapting to PDB with tailored underwriting practices and showing cautious optimism about its ability to reduce claims frequency and severity.
The future of PDB project delivery
PDB has emerged as a transformative approach to project delivery. Early results demonstrate its potential to reduce risk and improve insurability, especially in high-risk scenarios. As it gains traction, it could redefine how designers, constructors, and owners plan and execute infrastructure projects. It sets new industry standards for efficiency, trust, and accountability while driving long-term improvements in large-scale development.
Want to learn more?
Additional webinar presenters:
- David J. Hatem, Partner, MG+M
- Mike Johnson, Senior VP, Infrastructure Markets & Strategy, Kiewit
- Carl Munkel, Senior Risk Advisor, Gresham Smith
