Design-build implementation on airport projects in China: Delivered performance analysis

Abstract

The development of the civil aviation infrastructure construction has made extraordinary achievements during the 13th Five Year Plan period (2016-2020) and will also grow rapidly during the 14th Five Year Plan period (2021-2025) in China. In the past, most airport projects used the traditional project delivery method (PDM) of design-bid-build (DBB), which couldn’t longer adapt to the rapid development of the civil aviation infrastructure. With legislation changes and increased project complexity, some airports started using the design-build (DB) project delivery method in 2020, which is expected to accelerate the realization of the civil aviation infrastructure objectives, thus supporting China's national economic growth. This paper seeks to synthesize the past two years of the DB contracting implementation on airport projects in China, collect data from the 15 DB airport projects, overview those projects, and analyze the delivered projects of performance results. Results from the performance analysis show that the DB project delivery method has a median schedule change of 22% and a median cost change of zero in the three completed DB projects. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by analyzing and overviewing the 15 DB airport projects. The findings consistently show that the DB implementation can offer superior performance compared with the traditional DBD method.