Applying the Principles of the Work Zone Rule to Design-Build Projects, Two Case Studies

7. Lessons Learned and Opportunities

This case study documents how the Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule was applied to design-build projects in Colorado and North Carolina. The following describes lessons learned about how eight key aspects of the Rule were applied to these projects.

Overall

Recognize that the Agency has other types of risk in a design-build project and a key part to managing them is to write a good RFP. Although the primary risk (responsibility, schedule, quality of facility) for a design-build project is on the Contractor, the owner assumes a different type of risk - the loss of some of the control that exists in a traditional design-bid-build project. As valuable as innovation is for a design-build project, the owner must be clear and firm with their non-negotiables in the RFP to avoid bearing unnecessary risks. In writing the RFP, it can be helpful to give more emphasis and attention to process than to pay items, and to "DO THIS" than to "DON'T DO THIS".
Make project safety a priority right from the start. Maximizing safety of workers and the traveling public during construction should be a top priority for construction projects. It is important to emphasize safety and establish goals right from the beginning of a project. Both the project owner and the Contractor should recognize such an emphasis and work cooperatively to establish a strong safety ethic that continues throughout the project.
Value-added elements are a great benefit of design-build projects. An emphasis on value added elements encourages innovation. Value-added elements can improve work zone safety and mobility through the use of strategies such as reducing periods of lane or ramp closures, deploying positive protection (pre-cast portable barrier in lieu of barrels and cones), and shortening the schedule to reduce the overall project duration. With the conventional design-bid-build method, opportunities or incentives for these methods are likely minimal.
Encouraging contractor innovation can be a major benefit to design-build projects. One of the major benefits of the design-build delivery method is that it allows the Contractor flexibility to generate and implement innovative ideas to shorten the project schedule, increase safety and mobility, and reduce project costs. It is important for the Agency to recognize the value of innovation in improving work zone safety and mobility. To encourage innovation, the Agency should avoid including very prescriptive requirements in the RFP that specify how to do something to allow the Contractor the opportunity to be innovative. While it is true that the Agency can be innovative in designing projects, in some cases ideas that originated from the Agency have been considered risky or not practical due to established Agency guidelines or because such ideas have not been used previously by the Agency. The design-build delivery method can be an effective way for the Contractor to deliver innovations that the Agency would not consider due to institutional or political concerns.

RFP Development and Proposal Evaluation

Agency work zone traffic control staff should be involved in RFP development and proposal evaluation and selection. The responsibility for the development and implementation of work zone traffic control in a design-build project lies largely with the Contractor. The traffic engineering firm on the design-build team is critical to the success of the TMP and work zone traffic control plans. To include an appropriate level of scoring for safety and mobility elements in the proposal evaluation criteria, it is valuable to have work zone traffic control staff on the RFP development team and the evaluation and selection committee to ensure safety and mobility factors are adequately considered and weighed in the proposal process.
Proposal evaluation criteria and scoring are very important and should reflect the level of traffic management on the project. The evaluation criteria and scoring, and the relative weight for each criterion, need to be carefully considered. Because the Contractor bears much of the responsibility for work zone traffic management in a design-build project, safety and traffic management related elements may need to be assigned more evaluation points to communicate to potential bidders that these elements are important and to ensure safety and mobility are given appropriate consideration during proposal evaluation and Contractor selection.
Value-based selection is important to successful work zone safety and mobility for a project. It is critical that the owner to have safety, mobility and quality as part of the value-based criteria to communicate to bidders that these factors are important to the project owner and will be considered in proposal scoring. The owner should identify its goals and put together good specifications, and then review the proposals for indications of how the design-build team intends to provide for work zone safety and mobility during the project through design, MOT, public outreach, etc.
Use project specific guidance in the RFP. There are cases where the owner's guidelines and/or procedural requirements are conflicting or vague. When this is the case, it is important that the RFP includes project specific guidance that supersedes policy material to ensure that clearly defined and unambiguous guidelines and requirements are specified.
Provisions should be included in the RFP to require that work zone traffic control issues are addressed in a timely manner. Due to the fast moving nature of design-build projects, issues implementing the TMP and/or traffic control may not be addressed before the work associated with the issues has been completed and the work zone has been removed or altered to a new stage. Also, some of the usual means to address issues, such as withholding payment, are not available due to the lack of individual pay items. These issues can be addressed by including provisions in the RFP stating that work zone traffic control issues must be addressed within a specific time frame or monetary damages will be assessed.
Performance-based specifications in the RFP require measureable data for verification. Performance-based specifications are difficult to use if appropriate data cannot be collected. It is important to identify data needs for performance-based specifications and define data collection responsibilities early in project development. Explicitly defining data needs and data collection responsibilities in the RFP is critical to ensure data required for performance-based specifications are captured.

TMP Development and Implementation

Direct involvement by the Agency in reviewing TMPs may be more effective in reflecting Agency needs and expectations. An Agency can benefit from using qualified staff within its organization to perform TMP review to ensure all standards, requirements, and Agency goals and expectations are met. An Agency may opt to hire a consultant, on behalf of the Agency, to review the TMP developed by the Contractor for a design-build project. The Agency should be aware that a potential conflict of interest may exist when a consultant reviews the work done by another consultant with whom it may have a business relationship with on other projects. The conflict of interest may hinder the consultant's ability to perform an unbiased review.
Make sure all parties are informed. Subcontractors may not be on the job site every day and may not be as versed on the entire project. Effective communication mechanisms to deliver and pass on up-to-the-minute information on work progress between work shifts and locations is critical to maintain not only work progress but also safety and mobility within the work zone. For example, if a traffic control supervisor leading a night time ramp closure is unaware that an emergency lane closure occurred upstream during the previous shift, the planned ramp closure may be in conflict with the unplanned emergency lane closure. This type of situation can be avoided by establishing a well thought out communication method and making sure all parties are supplied with the necessary tools and/or up-to-minute information.
In monitoring TMP performance, recognize potential data sources and collaborate closely with them throughout the project. Data are needed to assess the effectiveness of TMP implementation and whether adjustments to the TMP are needed, as well as to assess if performance-based specifications are being met. Parties other than the owner and the Contractor may be potential data collectors and sources. For instance, law enforcement agencies and towing companies may have crash data for after hours that are not collected by the owner or the Contractor.

Quality Management

Successful implementation of a Quality Management Plan can save money. Implementation of a comprehensive QMP leads to mutual understanding in roles and responsibilities; positive collaboration between the Owner, Designer, and Contractor; and increased commitment and subject knowledge by the developers of the QMP. This leads to efficient and effective utilization of resources, quality products, and cost savings for both the Owner and the Contractor.

Team Capabilities

Agency staff needs to have knowledge and recognize the value of the Rule. Buy in from all levels of Agency staff is important for Rule implementation. Applying the Rule to construction projects can be a major challenge if the Agency staff is not familiar with the Rule. Lack of familiarity with the Rule hinders the effective application of the Rule to work zones. For design-build projects, it hampers the Agency's ability to convey the key messages of the Rule to the Contractor provide guidance and oversight to the Contractor regarding implementation of the Rule, and adequately weight work zone safety and mobility factors in the proposal evaluation process.
Contractors need to be familiar with the Rule. Contractor knowledge and buy-in is critical to effectively apply the Rule to projects. The Contractor's familiarity with the Rule is more important in design-build projects because the Contractor bears more responsibilities in work zone management. The Agency may need to educate the Contractor, and it may take time for the Contractor to realize the benefits of applying the Rule. Once the Contractor is familiar with the Rule, they tend to realize the benefits - more work gets done and the project does not suffer setbacks when the work zone is safer and less congested.
A trained Traffic Control Supervisor with knowledge on local guidelines and processes is beneficial. A common characteristic of design-build projects is that many of the Contractor's workers come from out-of-State and often from a different design-build project that has been recently completed. These individuals may not be as versed on the guidelines, protocols, and policies that are unique to the Agency, the project, and other local stakeholder agencies (e.g. DNR, watershed district, EPA). Having a designated trained person with previous experience and expertise working in the particular State can be very beneficial.

Coordination and Partnership

Project collaboration and good partnership are important to project efficiency and success. It is important to have the project owner and the Contractor working together, forming a strong partnership, and identifying their common goals to lead to a more cooperative and efficient project. Establishing different task forces early on in the project to guide the development and review of quality and safety plans will lead to solid results and will be very beneficial throughout the project.
Key stakeholders should be brought in early on. Improving work zone safety and mobility is a collective effort by all parties involved in the project. These include not only the Agency and the Contractor, but also other stakeholders. For a design-build project, early engagement and participation from stakeholders helps with building goals and expectations into the RFP to ensure the Contractor can develop a TMP that meets the Agency's needs and the project requirements. For example, involving incident management stakeholders early in the incident management planning during project development enhances work zone safety and mobility. While early engagement of incident management stakeholders in the design, RFP, and TMP development for design-bid-build projects is essential, it is even more critical for design-build projects as plan development is handed off to the Contractor.
The design-build delivery method promotes coordination and collaboration and builds a strong sense of ownership for all parties involved. Due to the nature of the design-build process, all parties involved in the project (including the Agency and all members on the Contractor team) have to work collaboratively to ensure project success. The designer, traffic engineer, construction contractor, and the Agency all have to work closely throughout the project to successfully develop and implement the design, the TMP, and other aspects. This close working relationship helps build a strong sense of project ownership for all parties involved in a design-build project.