Big design-build infrastructure projects often turn out to be money-losers for design-build contractors, preventing contractors from covering their overhead, much less earning a profit, according to a new study. Large highway and bridge projects, many involving public-private partnerships, are the least profitable of all infrastructure work.
Carried out by Travelers National Construction Services Surety team, the study looked at 224 highway, bridge, rail, transit and tunnel projects with different project delivery methods from 2004 to 2020. All projects had contract values between $250 million and $4 billion and almost all were projects on which Travelers had been the surety or co-surety.