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Business & Labor
Design-Build Still Growing in Popularity
(southeast.construction.com,
September 2006 issue)
By Debra
Wood
Corporations and governments
in the Southeast are increasingly turning to design-build.
The design-build delivery method continues
to grow in both public and private construction projects in
the Southeast.
"We're quoting more and more of
this kind of work," said Kevin Burton, project director
for CH2M Hill Lockwood Greene of Spartanburg, S.C. "It's
easier for [owners] to manage if there's a single point of
responsibility."
Richard A. Belle, vice president of
public affairs and information for the Design-Build Institute
of America, said studies show design-build is on the rise,
with owners of 38 percent or more of new nonresidential projects
opting for the delivery method. He projects it will hit 50
percent within the next decade.
"Particularly when there is no
wiggle room in the budget or schedule, design-build becomes
a more attractive vehicle," Belle said.
Private Projects
CH2M HILL Lockwood Greene began construction
in April on a $125 million, 700,000-sq.-ft. design-build gypsum
wallboard manufacturing plant in Georgetown, S.C., for American
Gypsum Co. of Dallas. The plant is going up adjacent to Santee
Cooper's Winyah Generating Station and will use synthetic
gypsum created by the power plant's scrubbing process.
In addition to constructing the building,
CH2M HILL Lockwood Greene is providing engineering and procurement
of equipment based on the owner's specifications. The project's
completion is scheduled for late 2007.
"Everyone wants to postpone [construction]
as long as they can because the market is changing so quickly,"
Burton said. "Design-build allows them flexibility and
pushes the responsibility down to firms like ours that do
this regularly and are comfortable taking on a little risk
to manage a job."
In St. Petersburg, Fla., The Austin
Co. of Cleveland began designing a production and warehouse
facility two years ago for Cox Target Media of Largo, Fla.
The $50 million, 500,000-sq.-ft., steel-frame and tilt-up
concrete facility broke ground last year and is expected to
be complete in January.
The relatively long design time for
a design-build project was needed to give the owner time to
select automation and other equipment.
"There is so much evolution and
development going on with technology that goes into a manufacturing
plant," said Michael G. Pierce, senior vice president
of sales and marketing for The Austin Co. With design-build,
"a lot of the decisions are made while the building is
under way. They're squeezing the latest technology against
the earliest delivery of equipment."
Austin has divided the job into four
sections. As it completes construction in a quadrant, it turns
it over to Cox to install the equipment. The building boasts
sustainable design features, such as a flywheel-driven backup
battery, enhanced natural light and use of recycled materials.
Cardinal Health of Dublin, Ohio, took
a different approach to building its distribution center,
allowing The Conlon Co. of Marietta, Ga., to design and build
a 330,000-sq.-ft., $15 million warehouse before all of the
equipment was secured.
Conlon continues to modify designs to
accommodate the equipment. The steel frame and tilt-up distribution
center will finish in October.
"[Industrial facilities] are fairly
easy to do design-build," said Scott Austin, vice president
of Conlon. "If I had a shell warehouse design-build,
I would eat that up."
Quicker delivery drives many of the
design-build projects, including the Bass Pro Shop and distribution
center in Macon, Ga. This spring, Choate Construction Co.
of Atlanta completed construction of the 450,000-sq.-ft. distribution
center within 13 months.
Macon Bibb County Industrial Authority
owns and developed the building, and Kathy Bowden, executive
director of the authority, said speed was the determining
factor in using design-build.
In Florida, the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers
opted for design-build delivery for their new $35 million
corporate headquarters and training facility. Hunt Construction
Group of Tampa, in a joint venture with Sierra Commercial
Construction of Laurel, Md., began the project in August 2005.
Mark McCaskey, project director for
Hunt, said the job should wrap up in September.
The job consists of a two-story, 115,000-sq.-ft.
office building and a one-story, 22,000-sq.-ft. training facility,
maintenance building, guard shack and three practice fields.
The team selected design-build "to
allow a quick start, fast track through construction and having
a single responsible entity," McCaskey said.
Public Work
Speed can also sway governments to select
design-build. Such was the case for the city of Savannah,
Ga., in its development of a new four-level, 1,100-car, underground
parking facility and restoration of one of the city's historic
squares atop the parking structure.
The city tore down an existing parking
structure and secured subterranean rights for that site, which
W.B. Barnard Co. of Atlanta will develop into a hotel and
office complex. The post-tensioned concrete parking structure,
with a 2.5-ace footprint, will serve as a foundation for those
private buildings.
"The private part of the partnership
was anxious to get things moving and [design-build] was a
faster way to move forward," said Bob Scanlon, project
manager for the city. "We're 40 ft. in the ground and
less than two years from when the developer first came to
us with a concept."
Batson-Cook Co. of Atlanta began construction
before drawings were complete. During excavation of the site,
which is about 1.5 blocks from the Savannah River, crews hit
water at 22 ft. and began dewatering.
The company contracted with Riato of
Japan to install a secant wall around the entire site. The
wall reaches down 95 ft. to a clay layer and eliminates almost
all of the water seepage. It will stay in place and become
part of the garage's waterproofing system.
"We anticipate having to run dewatering
as long as the garage is there, but the inflow is expected
to be fairly low volume," Scanlon said.
Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Orlando
began construction in May on the 280,000-sq.-ft., 10-building
Graceville Prison, in Graceville, Fla. The GEO Group of Boca
Raton, Fla., will operate the $68 million, 1,500-bed facility
for the Florida Department of Management Services.
The project consists of three two-story
housing buildings with precast cells erected in place and
several pre-engineered metal buildings.
Mike Odom, project manager for Hensel
Phelps, said design-build helped save time, and the project
should complete next September.
In Tallahassee, when Florida State University
moved up plans to build DeGraff Hall, the school opted for
design-build with a team with dormitory experience and off-the-shelf
drawings that could be tailored to the project's needs.
"The schedule was so tight when
we advertised for this project, the only way teams were going
to be able to make the schedule was to come in with a design
on the shelf," said Lisa Durham, senior project manager
for FSU.
Culpepper Construction of Tallahassee
began demolition of an existing dormitory in August 2005 and
began construction on the 157,000-sq.-ft., two-building, five-story,
706-bed dormitories with documents only 75 percent modified
for the site. The project must wrap up in time for the 2007
fall term.
Speed of construction also factored
into the North Carolina Department of Transportation's decision
to widen 2.1 mi. of Interstate 40 near Asheville. Taylor and
Murphy Construction Co. of Asheville received the $42.9 million
contract to add an outside auxiliary lane and an inside lane
in each direction. The project includes several bridges, noise
walls and utility work.
"The efficiencies of the design-build
process result in a shortened project delivery time, which
will enable the department to meet the needs of this region
much sooner," said NCDOT spokeswoman Lisa Crist Crawley.
"The project was also a good candidate for design-build
because it is fairly complex, and having one contractor oversee
the entire process significantly simplifies the management
of all the project's aspects."
In Lauderhill, Fla., the simplicity
of working with one entity convinced Broward County Parks
and Recreation Division to select the design-build delivery
method for its new $35 million, 110-acre Central Broward Regional
Park.
Seawood Builders of Deerfield Beach
and H.J. Russell & Co. of Atlanta received the contract
in 2005 to design and build a 5,000-seat, 20,000-sq.-ft. field
house with a 560-ft.-diameter multipurpose field for soccer,
cricket and football, nature trails and a jogging path on
the former AT&T ship-to-shore antenna farm. The park should
open at the end of 2007.
"[Design-build] is one of the simpler
ways to address a construction project, because you're hiring
a team, rather that two individual companies," said Bob
Harbin, director of Parks and Recreation. "It's worked
best for us."
Architectural firm VOA Associates of
Orlando, which designs for U.S. military clients, is serving
as the design partner on two projects being built by Sauer
of Jacksonville, Fla.
At Fort Bragg, N.C., the team is renovating
Kennedy Hall for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The $10
million job includes demolishing the existing building to
the shell and reconfiguring the interior spaces for general-purpose
administrative and high-technology classroom space. The team
received the contract in June 2005, with completion scheduled
for March.
The team also is building the Space
and Naval Warfare Electronic Integration and Support Facility
at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, S.C. It began
work on the $10.6 million, 55,000-sq.-ft. laboratory and office
space in September 2005 and expects to complete the job in
April.
Ted Fery, a principal with VOA, said
he anticipates that the military will continue using design-build.
"Design-build is gaining strength," he said. "The
steam has not run out."
USEFUL SOURCES: Ellis
Square
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