The construction industry is always looking for a better mousetrap. For much of the past 20 years, that better mousetrap has come in the form of variations on project delivery. Concepts like construction management, program management and design-build have risen or been popularized as panaceas, or at least better than the traditional design-bid-build approach that dominated American project delivery for decades. But owners increasing demands on their project teams and the growing interest in integrated modeling and green building have elevated these alternatives to the point where they have begun to eclipse design-bid-build. Some say they should no longer be considered alternative, but merely varieties of what now is the mainstream.
For many firms, this means being equipped to provide a broad palette of project-delivery options. “We provide ten to twelve different models of project delivery,” says Garry E. Nunes, national director of construction services for PB Americas Inc. He notes that Parsons Brinckerhoff reorganized last fall to combine Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, its project design group, with PB Construction Services, its construction group, to better facilitate the interchange of design, contracting and management skills for clients.