Behzad Esmaeili

Impact of Owners’ Early Decisions on Project Performance and Dispute Occurrence in Public Highway Projects

AbstractDisputes are common in the construction industry and lead to unnecessary cost and schedule overruns in projects. It is commonly believed that owners’ early decisions regarding the selection...

Preliminary investigation of the impact of project delivery method on dispute resolution method choice in public highway projects

The use of alternative project delivery methods (PDMs) is perceived to create collaborative environments that result in less adversarial relationships between construction parties, which consequently leads to less disputes. While many research studies investigated the alternative PDMs’ impact on cost, schedule, quality, and sustainability, there is limited research to empirically investigate the impact of the PDM on the dispute resolution process choice. This aim of this paper is to conduct a preliminary investigation on how PDMs’ choice has affected Department of Transportation (DOTs) selection of the dispute resolution method (DRM). To achieve this objective, the researchers conducted content analysis of three State DOTs’ specification documents, both for Design-Bid-Build (DBB) and Design-Build (DB) PDMs. Results show that a stepped process is used in all three states with some form alternative DRM being used before resorting to litigation to provide opportunity for prevention and early resolution of disputes. In terms of PDM effect on the DRM, one state used an amicable dispute resolution process that fosters partnerships in DB and not in DBB projects, while another used partnering efforts regardless of the PDM employed. Also, the use of non-binding DRBs in another DOTs’ DB specifications before resorting to binding DRM provide opportunity for amicable ADR methods to be used before being escalated to litigation. This study serves as a preliminary investigation of how PDM choice could affect the way disputes are handled and results show that there is no consistent manner on which the dispute resolution process is selected based on PDM.

Exploring the behavioral pattern of stakeholders in construction projects which used best-value selection

Best-value is a procurement method that combine price and non-price factors when selecting a contractor or design-builder. While, several researchers have evaluated the impact of best-value selection on project outcomes—such as cost, schedule, and quality—there are a limited number of studies that qualitatively evaluate the experience of different parties on projects that have been procured through best-value. To address this knowledge gap, this study aims to explore project stakeholders’ experience, team interactions, and behavioral patterns during best-value project execution. To achieve these objectives, three healthcare-construction case studies were selected and in-depth phone interviews were conducted with representatives of owners and contractors. The interviews were transcribed and a content analysis was implemented to explore the relationship between the procurement method and the team’s behavior in those projects. Three themes of team behavior emerged from the study, including innovation, partnering, and problem solving. The results of the interviews indicate that best-value selection encourages innovation, enhances partnering, and facilitates problem solving. The results also demonstrate that the time required to go through contractor selection and project scope development are major challenges of projects procured using best-value selection. To achieve successful completion of a project, one should: provide early project planning that includes clear definition of each party’s responsibilities; provide proper training; involve end users; and provide proper details in request-forproposals. This research makes a cross comparison between the findings of this study and the existing literature related to best-value. The results of the study provide new insights regarding the team-building process through best-value selection. Furthermore, this study provides a basis for future data collection and quantitative analysis to compare various procurement methods and provides a foundation for exploring team integration in construction projects.