Survey of Consultant Services for Construction Projects Management

1. Survey of Consultant Services Provided for Management and Inspection of Construction Projects

2. Goal of Survey • Determine how DOTs contract with Consultants • DOTs usage of Consultants for Management and Inspection on Construction Projects • DOTs Qualifications of Consultants • Authority and Responsibility DOTs delegated to Consultants • DOTs evaluation of Consultant Performance • Determine if Consultants are cost effective

3. Responses • 33 states responded to the survey

4. Contracting with Consultants • About 70% of DOTs prequalify Consultants • Prequalification is generally by work categories

5. 67% of DOTs use both project specific and on-call contracts • 21% use Project Specific only • 12% use On-Call only • Project Specific & Initial On Call contracts generally take 2-6 months for DOTs to negotiate • Once On-Call contract is in place it takes less than 1 month to process work order

6. Types of contracts vary, the most typical types are: • Cost Plus Fixed Fee • Hourly (with Additive) • Fixed Fee (Lump Sum)

7. DOTs Construction Program • 60% of DOTs programs are under $500 Million • 23% over $500 Million but under $1Billion • 17% over $1 Billion

8. Usage of Consultants • About 50% of DOTs allow Design Consultants to pursue Management and Inspection of Construction Project contracts • For DOTs that use Consultants – All have their needs meet by existing firms • The number of firms varies from 6 to 500 • Most states have less than 100 firms

9. Situations that warrant the need for Consultants • Insufficient DOT staff • Specialty Projects • Specialty Expertise • Spike in Workload • Project Size and Complexity

10. 72% of DOTs consider Consultant usage during peak times to be cost effective and efficient alternative to increasing DOT full time employees

11. Consultants Scope of Work In order of DOT usage • Inspection, Management and Material Tester • Inspector • Tester • Project Engineer/Manager

12. Experience, Expertise, Qualifications • 45% of DOTs require years of experience to perform certain services • 65 % of DOTs require individual to demonstrate specific expertise • 84% of DOT require specific training or qualifications

13. Authority / Responsibility • 87% of DOTs do not allow Consultant to be in “Responsible Charge” of projects • DOTs vary greatly in the Authority / Responsibility given to Consultants • Generally it is less than DOT staff

14. Consultant Performance • About 2/3 of DOTs evaluate performance with company reviews • While the other 1/3 of DOTs use individual review or a combination of company and individual reviews

15. Costs • Average DOT Labor Additive = 100% • Average Consultant Labor Additive = 149% • Varies from 50% to 204% • Consultant’s employees make an average of 47% more than DOT employees

16. Consultant staff is an average of 219% more expensive than DOT staff, based on a Hourly to Hourly comparison. • This is without taking into consideration the next slide

17. Inspection Costs - % of Construction Projects • Only DOT staff – Average 6.75% • Only Consultant staff – Average 11.29% • Combination of staff – Average 8.05% • Generally Inspected by Consultant and Managed by DOT

18. Decrease in DOT staff • DOTs have decreased staff an average of 10% in the last year • DOTs have decreased staff an average of 13% over the last 5 years

19. Work Group • Bren George - Indiana FHWA • Brian Lawrence – Maine FHWA • Dennis Largent – Atkins North America • John Eddy - Colorado DOT • Jeff Wassenaar – Colorado DOT • Lewis Cannon – Connecticut DOT • Michelle Page – Utah DOT • Sue Darling – Kansas DOT