Abstract
Construction contracts in the USA frequently contain a clause on Value Engineering which allows contractor-initiated design changes. Misleading is the interpretation of value engineering to imply cost savings shared with the owner, and its implementation, just before or during actual construction, is problematic. It is not surprising that such a clause would simply be ignored because it involves changes in design, often major changes in very short time; and change is feared, and moreover, vehemently resisted by all parties: owner, designer, and contractor. Major design changes were nevertheless successfully implemented in record speed on several very large projects in the metropolitan New York area. Four case histories spanning from 1998 to 2002 are presented in this paper. They include two Design/Build prjects: the redesign of large diameter drilled shafts for the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System; and the elimination of deep caissons in favor of spread footings for a new $90 million MTA bus depot in Manhattan. The other two case histories are conventional Design/Bid/Build projects: maintaining in lieu of removal of a 100-year old abutment of the $72 million Queens Boulevard Bridge Replacement; and the complete redesign of major retaining walls and actual use of the Giken tubular pressed-in pipe piles as very high cantilever retaining walls, for the $150 million expansion of the Long Island Expressway. The author describes how the changes in each case were unconventional, painful, and even comical at times.
Published Version
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