U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| Project Information | ||
| Project ID: | FHWA-PROJ-10-0067 | |
| Project Name: | TechBrief: Construction Quality Assurance for Design-Build Highway Projects | |
| Project Status: | Active | |
| Start Date: | November 1, 2010 | |
| End Date: | April 27, 2012 | |
| Contact Information | ||
| Last Name: | Bradbury | |
| First Name: | Richard | |
| Telephone: | 202-493-3061 | |
| E-mail: | richard.bradbury@dot.gov | |
| Office: | Office of Infrastructure Research and Development | |
| Team: | Pavement Design and Construction Team [HRDI-20] | |
| Program: | Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center | |
| Project detail | ||
| Project Description: | Publish a TechBrief to assist State departments of transportation (DOTs) in developing quality assurance specifications for design-build projects. | |
| Goals: | Provide improved guidance for quality assurance practices on design-build highway projects. | |
| Background Information: | One area of design-build contracting that requires closer examination is construction quality assurance (QA). While design-build is believed to provide an equal level of project quality compared to design-bid-build, as outlined in the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWAs) Design-Build Effectiveness Study, a recent examination of State agency design-build procurement packages showed that roles and responsibilities for construction quality are not clearly defined in many instances. A paper published in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2081,"Does Design-Build Project Delivery Affect the Future of the Public Engineer?" noted that when 60 design-build requests for proposals were examined, in 23 cases, assignment of responsibilities for verification and acceptance testing could not be determined. National Cooperative Highway Research Program's (NCHRP's) NCHRP Synthesis 376: Quality Assurance in Design-Build Projects states, With the changing quality roles found in the DB [design-build] delivery method, it is imperative that quality responsibilities and the responsible parties are clearly stated in the contract documents. While many agencies currently have well-defined quality assurance (QA) processes for design-build contracting, there is a need to clarify the various QA roles and responsibilities to assist agencies who may wish to improve their contract documents. In contracting, many times uncertainty equates to risk, and risk often equates to increased cost. | |
| Product Type: | Research report Techbrief | |
| Test Methodology: | White paper | |
| Expected Benefits: | Improved quality assurance specifications for design-build procurement documents. | |
| Deliverables: | Name: White paper. Product Type(s): Research report, Techbrief Description: White paper outlining best practices for quality assurance practices for design-build projects. | |
| FHWA Topics: | Roads and Bridges--Construction and Project Management | |
| TRT Terms: | Design Build Construction Projects Quality Assurance Research Infrastructure Highways |
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| FHWA Disciplines: | Construction and Project Management Generalist |
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| Subject Areas: | Construction Highways Materials |
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