Ethical Issues in Design Build

"Design-Build" is a process for undertaking construction projects that has become increasingly popular. Although used to a substantive degree by private owners for many decades, it was rarely used by public agency owners because competitive bidding laws required separation of the design and construction contracts. Designers (professional engineers and architects) were retained under contract (or employed in-house) by public agencies to prepare definitive drawings and specifications, which were the basis for competitive bidding by construction contractors. It would be na?ve to suggest that construction contractors ever enjoyed obtaining their work by competitive bidding. Indeed, the opposite is the case. And by astute interaction with public policy makers, the construction industry has done an excellent job of changing the laws and regulations in a vast swath of public agencies in the United States. And along with this, construction contractors have convinced more private owners that they are a convenient one-stop source of complete design and construction services. Indeed, few construction contractors today do not have "design-build" painted on the side of their truck. This situation raises ethical issues for professional engineers (and architects). It also raises ethical issues for public agency managers (many of whom may be professional engineers). And it raises business issues for private owners that they would be wise to consider. This is what we will talk about today.

Author: J. Paul Guyer

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Jun 29, 2013

Number of Pages: 32 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1490563121

ISBN-13: 9781490563121