The article “Fixing Construction’s Fixed-Price Conundrum” definitely identified a critically important issue that materially impacts continued successful utilization of design-build and P3 approaches in North America.
The demonstrated negative impact on construction of DB and P3 fixed-price procurement, exacerbated by unreasonable and imbalanced contractual risk allocation, has another important negative by-product—the frequency and severity of professional liability claims asserted by design-builders against consulting engineer subconsultants. Significantly, many derive from the same problems and challenges discussed in the article. The trickle-down effect of fixed-price and imbalanced risk allocation on consulting engineers warrants equal attention.