DOES DESIGN-BUILD (DB) OUTPERFORM CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AT RISK (CMAR)? A COST AND SCHEDULE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DB PROJECTS AND CMAR PROJECTS Institutional Repository Document uri icon

abstract

  • Design-Build (DB) and Construction Management at Risk (CMAR) are two widely used alternative project delivery systems in the construction industry. Previous studies have found inconclusive results on which of the two has better cost and schedule performances when applied in construction projects. This study chose unit cost, change order factor, cost growth, schedule growth, and construction intensity as the metrics to measure the cost and schedule performance of both DB projects and CMAR projects. Two statistical analysis tools, Analysis of Variance and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, were applied to see if there is any difference between the two project delivery systems means of the five measurements. The test results were used to determine which project delivery system has better performance in the real world. The results showed that Design-Build is superior to Construction Management at Risk in construction intensity, while Construction Management at Risk has better performance on the change order, cost growth, and schedule growth. And there is no difference in unit cost.

author list (cited authors)

  • Fernandez-Solis, J. L., Ma, M., & Du, J.

complete list of authors

  • Fernandez-Solis, Jose L||Ma, Min||Du, Jing

publication date

  • January 2018