The (im)possibilities of the traditional building procedure. Infrastructure is of crucial importance to the Dutch economy. In the process of developing infrastructure projects the negative effects such as emissions, land use and safety, should be taken into account. Projects that are acceptable to society at large demand innovative input from all parties involved. However, the construction industry is often blamed for not being innovative. One of the reasons is the traditional building procedure with public tendering and a division between design and construction. Usually, a public authority formulates a programme and an expert makes a design with detailed specifications. Now the project is put up for tendering and the contract is granted to the lowest tender (mostly) or the 'best economic' bid (sometimes). This does not stimulate the search for innovative solutions. Therefore, it is important that tendering, design and construction are tightly linked as is the case in the so called 'integrated' model. At the moment there is much debate on the exact nature of such a model. The heat of the discussion shows that the content of the integrated model is not clear yet. Moreover, mutual trust between the parties has evaporated lately. Yet, the dispute must be settled in order to achieve the necessary innovations. (Author/publisher)
Abstract