Rep. Rhoads’ HB 1016 concerning design-build projects passed the Senate and is ready to head to the Governor. It passed 92-1 in the House and unopposed in the Senate. (Rep. Davis is the only one to vote against it, apparently.)
It’s a small change that allows fire protection districts to join state agencies, state educational institutions, local units, body corporate and politic created by state statute, school corporations, and conservancy districts as a “public agency” permitted to use the “design-build” procedure for public works under IC 5-30. That procedure allows you to basically have the same entity serving as architect and builder.
This is possibly meaninglessly boring to anyone else, but the traditional project delivery method of three separate entities – Owner, Architect, Builder – actually allows for better checks and balances than design-build does. Not that design-build isn’t appropriate for a lot of projects, but in public projects the possibility of overcharging and/or misrepresentation of materials is much higher with design build.
Donna,
You may have point with public projects, but I have some design-build projects and they get projects up pretty fast and within budget. And the AIA standard contracts make the negotiation process more efficient and streamlined.