CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2025

Early cost certainty is a key benefit achieved by owners utilizing design-build delivery. Accurately pricing early design concepts requires skill and diligence under normal conditions, but unprecedented market volatility experienced since March 2020 has upped the ante. With unpredictability in pricing, material and equipment availability, and increasing labor costs, traditional approaches to predicting costs have become practically obsolete. Jacobs is currently delivering four design-build projects in different regions of the United States – three progressive design-build delivery and one fixed-price design-build delivery. Two established pricing commitments in late 2020 and two established guaranteed maximum prices (GMPs) in 2021 and 2022, respectively. This presentation will compare approaches used for each project and highlight lessons learned that can be applied immediately, but also are worthy considerations for best practices in any market. These include: - Effective market engagement strategies to produce accurate cost estimates at various project stages - Cost escalation approaches to manage risk and attract market competition - Equipment and material procurement strategies to address supply chain shortages - Market input and validation of costs