The development of public highway infrastructure is becoming more demanding on Owners as a result of increasing financial pressures and shorter delivery schedules. In an effort to effectively manage these demands, the Government of British Columbia, Canada, recently decided to initiate two urban highway projects using the design/build delivery process. This new initiative required specialised expertise in order to develop the new process and integrate it with British Columbian needs. The Owner's engineer is an evolving role whereby the Owner appoints an independent agent to assist and overview the appointment of the Design/Build Contractor and the day-to-day activities during the design and implementation implementation phases. This paper discusses some of the roles of the Owner's Engineer within the Ministry of Transportation and Highway's integrated project team and addresses some typical Owner concerns that result from the design/build process. It relates these discussions to experience on the Upper Levels Highway/Westview Interchange and the Johnson-Mariner Connector projects; the first two design/build contracts being undertaken by the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Highways. The paper also provides an overview of the two selected design/build projects, the process used in soliciting submissions from design/build teams and the evaluation procedures adopted in selection of the Contractor. (A)
Abstract