By Tom Nicholson

Midway through construction of Maine’s first design-build highway project, a mile-long shortcut being built between Interstate-295 and Portland’s waterfront commercial district, state transportation officials say the job is on track to set a new precedent for expediency in a state highway job.

Started in 2003, the $24-million Portland Connector will provide a direct route from I-295 to the city’s wharf area and is expected to carry about 12,000 vehicles per day. The work, which includes construction of three bridges, replacement of a traffic circle with an at-grade intersection and placement of a bicycle and pedestrian trail along the Fore River, will be completed in November 2005.

Maine Dept. of Transportation officials credit design-build teamwork for the project’s quick delivery. "By putting everyone in the same room together we’ve been able to accelerate the timetable of delivery on this project," says Shawn Smith, project manager of Maine DOT’s Urban and Arterial Highway Program. "This thing is going to be open by the time we would normally have put it out to bid using conventional methods." The approach will trim about two years off a traditionally delivered project, he adds.

The winning design-build team consists of Pittsfield, Maine-based Cianbro Co., the job’s prime contractor; subcontractor Shaw Brothers Construction, Gorham, Maine; and engineers Louis Berger Group, Manchester, N.H., and Gray, Maine-based S.W. Cole Engineering. Shaw is handling earthmoving, Berger design and Cole geotechnical engineering services. They beat out three other teams for the contract. So far, the team has "encountered a few bumps along the way as a result of this being the state’s first design-build highway project, but [it] has really performed well," says Trevin Cobb, Maine DOT‘s Portland Connector project manager.

Cianbro project manager Parker Hadlock says the company’s experience managing design-build teams on private sector work, mostly pulp and paper projects, gave him some insight into how to maximize a team environment. "In legal terms, we are the contractor and [Shaw, Berger and Cole] are the subcontractors, but we very much approach this as a partnering–we see them as part of the team," he says.

	The Portland Connector fills the missing link between I-295 and waterfront.

On the job site, each firm has its own trailer, but the team assembles frequently for conferences in Cianbro’s onsite office. During sessions, the partnering dynamic that Hadlock cultivated has encouraged communication between the team members, allowing each firm to tap the expertise, experience and opinions of their counterparts. That’s an aspect of the job that Berger Vice President Dale Spaulding says has made the Portland Connector project "one of the best experiences I’ve had as a professional."

Early in the project, as Hadlock and Spaulding grappled with the details of bridge specifications during the design process, Spaulding says his company learned to step back and recognize the benefits that could come from the team approach. "As designers, we have a certain perspective and as builders, they have a totally different perspective that we are often oblivious to," says Spaulding.

Spanning Ideas

The project involved three overpasses. Two are 120-ft-long single spans. The largest is 400-ft long with four spans. All of the bridges have steel girders on top of concrete piers and a precast deck slab topped with a cast-in-place deck.

During the design process for the longest bridge, Spaulding says they "looked at two- and three-span alternatives and had just about discarded the four-span idea." But during discussions between the designers and Cianbro, the contractor said the four-span design would be cheaper because it required less steel.

"We decided we should look at the four-span design and, to everyone’s surprise, it became the design we went with," Spaulding says. "You normally wouldn’t have that type of interaction."

Hadlock says Cianbro assembled the team for the project based mostly on past working relationships, but broke new ground by partnering with Berger’s local office. "With Shaw, we’ve worked for them and they’ve worked for us, so it’s a relationship we were comfortable with," Hadlock says. "But we never worked with Berger before and it was a bit atypical to step into something with a company you haven’t worked with before. [The] reason we had the courage to do it was we felt they were the best designer for the job. [Berger] came into the room equipped and prepared for the project, while others did not. It was also a matter of good chemistry between the project team as well."

Both Cianbro and Shaw had previous experience working with Cole. "S.W. Cole has been a materials testing provider for Cianbro for many years," Hadlock says. "They also handled geotechnical issues for Shaw Brothers on previous contracts."

	Teamwork fostered by Maine's first design-build road contract helped speed project over hurdles.

Hadlock points to the team’s common vision as well as shared incentives as a conduit for success on the project. "As a true design-build team, [the firms] work extremely well together," Hadlock says. "From putting the bid together, to working through the design and [then the] first season of construction, the entire team worked as one, everyone pulling in the same direction towards a common goal."

In terms of financial incentives, the firms bid the project together "with individual scopes of work that needed to work together for everyone to win," Hadlock adds. "It has proven to work well, as the team has to work as one for everyone to succeed." While Spaulding believes teaming on this project will "result in a better product," he cautions that this is not universally true in design-build project delivery. "I’ve heard of other projects that have gone poorly. The difference here is the team," he says.

While integrated teamwork is credited for the rapid delivery of this job, Hadlock says there have been challenges for Cianbro associated with managing a design-build project. Tasked with the responsibility of overseeing every facet of the job, Hadlock says the Portland Connector project has "been very much a learning process and will continue to be so."

Public Pressure

	Unexpected four-span bridge design was the result of collaboration.

Bidding on a design-build project is challenging because "there is more risk for the contractor...and part of the risk is making the bid." Hadlock says. "You end up consuming a lot of time putting it together and if you lose, it’s a big loss."

Although the state offered a $40,000 stipend to help bidders offset the cost of bidding, Hadlock says that ended up covering only about 20% of bid costs. "You’ve got to have a reasonable chance of success before you bid on a project this way," Hadlock says. "There is a definite cutoff where a smaller company can’t do this kind of project. They just can’t take the risk."

Being a pioneering public project also brought additional pressure on Cianbro. "When you are dealing with a public entity, they are less concerned with expediency and more concerned with adhering to state and federal regulations," says Hadlock. "The scrutiny level from the state was greater than we expected and as a result, the administrative review costs were more than we had anticipated."

Because it is a public job, Hadlock says the team has representatives from a wider spread of stakeholders than usual, including state DOT officials, utility companies, railroads and property owners whose land abuts the project site. Each entity has had some input on the project design. "We are in an oversight role," Hadlock says. "There were about 40 different stakeholders we had to interface with in this project and at some point in the [design] process, you have to step back and ask if this is good for everyone."

Since Cianbro entered into the contract not knowing the final design, it was "one part of the design-build process we found challenging," Hadlock says. "There was a whole end of this project that was not concerned with the abutters and we had to adjust for that." Cianbro organized public forums for the stakeholders and brought them in on the design. "We got every one of the abutters together and worked as a team on the final design. It was a fun stage of the project." Hadlock says. "When the landowners were dissatisfied with the design, we basically gave them a magic marker and said, ‘Come back and tell us where this project should go.’"

Plans weren’t the only problem. During excavation last summer, the project was delayed for additional geotechnical studies when Shaw began encountering more clay than expected. "We have the biggest part of the job and we had to deal with the geotechnical issues," says President Jon Shaw. Still, Shaw says he was able to turn to the team for input when the soil compression rates had to be reevaluated. He says DOT also stepped in to help reevaluate compression rates. "When you are stuck with one engineer you can’t go to anyone for outside help, but with design-build you can," Shaw says.

Despite the difficulties encountered during earthmoving, Shaw says the shortened time frame on the project will help offset the additional costs and time the delay caused. "This project is a huge plus for the taxpayer," he adds. State DOT officials agree, saying that while the overall construction costs probably will not be significantly reduced, the short time frame of the project will be a boon for Portland.

Speed was essential. When state officials began planning the project, they knew the job would involve major traffic rerouting during the course of construction, says Brad Foley, Maine DOT’s project manager during the two-step bidding stage of the project.

State legislation adopted in 2001 allowed design-build project delivery on public projects. Because of the significant traffic issues, Maine DOT thought design-build would be perfect for the Portland Connector. "With the complexity of traffic management on this job, we wanted to give the contractor flexibility and also shorten the time frame of the job," Foley says.

The state has completed only one other public design-build transportation project, the Sagadahoc Bridge on the Kennebec River in Bath. It was completed in 2000. As a result, the Portland Connector project is serving as an important proving ground for design-build road projects and teaming in Maine. "On a bridge project, it’s a more straightforward thing and this job has been much more complex," Cobb says. "So it’s been a learning process for both parties and I think both would say it’s been a success."

By Tom Nicholson
The author, a freelance writer and editor, lives in New York City. He was a daily newspaper reporter and has written for numerous magazines and now proofreads for Engineering News-Record.

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