Longitudinal study of construction manager at risk for pipeline rehabilitation

The traditional design-bid-build (DBB) delivery system is a sequential process and can lead to inefficiencies and adverse relationships among owners, design engineers, and contractors, which are often caused by a lack of stakeholder integration. Several alternative project delivery methods (APDM) have been introduced to increase stakeholder integration. Examples of these include construction manager at risk (CMAR), job order contracting (JOC), and design-build (DB). The ability to use alternative project delivery methods to deliver public construction projects is governed by legislation that may vary from state to state. A large and representative industry group working together out of Arizona State University (ASU) helped the State of Arizona revise its statutes in 2000 to allow municipalities, such as the City of Phoenix, to use alternative delivery methods (CMAR, JOC, and DB) for their construction projects. This paper studies the use of the CMAR delivery system by the City of Phoenix to deliver a critical 10-year pipeline rehabilitation program: the Val Vista water transmission main. This paper combines a case study and quantitative analysis of each of the four phases of the rehabilitation program. The findings demonstrate the performance benefits of using CMAR, which include a cumulative cost reduction of 2.75% and schedule reduction of 3.4% over the four phases of the program, as well as improved change and communication performance. This study offers a key contribution to the construction body of knowledge: it uncovers CMAR benefits through (1) performing a longitudinal study on a large-diameter water main rehabilitation program, and (2) analyzing the performance effects of the CMAR delivery method on pipeline rehabilitation. The results can help owners better understand the potential performance benefits CMAR has on pipeline engineering and construction projects.