New York City has begun soliciting bidders for the first projects in its design-build program. The city’s Department of Design and Construction issued a request for qualifications Thursday for two public development projects: a headquarters for the Department of Parks and Recreation, and another on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens.
The new program will allow a design-build contractor to submit one single proposal instead of various proposals for each portion of the project, according to Biz Now. After the city receives statements of qualifications from bidders, it will rank the top six, assigning three of them to each project.
According to the article, the design-build process is quicker and cheaper than the typical proposal formats, proponents of the program say. Members of the construction lobby praised the legislature for giving the city the approval to launch a program for public projects in 2019.
"The projects that we have seen that use design-build have been done faster, quicker and on budget or under budget," New York Building Congress CEO Carlo Scissura told Crain’s New York Business at the time. "So it's good for the state; it's good for the city. It's another tool in the toolbox for building New York."
