Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

State officials say changing building method could save money

CARSON CITY – Big savings could be possible if the state modified the way it constructs highways and buildings, an efficiency panel was told Monday.

Nevada Transportation Director Susan Martinovich and Public Works Manager Gus Nunez recommended restrictions in the law be eliminated to allow them to use a design-build concept more widely, rather than the traditional design-bid-build procedure.

They said 15 to 25 percent of the cost could be shaved off certain projects and construction times could be reduced. Under design-building, the design and build phases overlap instead of the traditional method of doing the design, then putting the project out to bid, then beginning construction.

Martinovich and Nunez spoke Monday to the Blue Ribbon Panel of the Nevada Spending and Government Efficiency Commission, which is looking at possible changes in the law during the 2011 Legislature.

Martinovich said the I-15 freeway widening from the Spaghetti Bowl to Craig Road was successful using design-build. The $240 million project was completed almost two years faster than the traditional design-bid-build scenario, she said. That was NDOT's first design-build project.

Nunez told the panel the state saved 15 to 20 percent on constructing the Bryan Office Building in Carson City using the design-build method.

But former state Sen. Warren Hardy, who now represents the Associated General Contractors, said he had concerns about how the new design method would affect competitive bidding.

“We have to protect everybody’s right to bid,” he told the panel. “Every taxpayer has to have the ability to bid competitively.”

The law now restricts the transportation department to one design-build project a year in the $5 million to $20 million range. Nunez said his agency is restricted to design-build projects costing $10 million or more.

Both told the committee the money restrictions should be removed.

Nunez said he wouldn't use the design-build method on “extremely complex” structures such as the research lab at UNLV. “There are too many unknowns” if the project was a design-build, rather than through the bidding process, he said.

The auto technology building at the Cheyenne campus of the College of Southern Nevada was completed months quicker than if the traditional process of putting the elements out to bid had been used, he said.

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