Examining the Influence of Procurement and Contracting in Design–Build Performance: A Comparison between the Transportation and Water and Wastewater Sectors

Abstract While design–build (DB) use and relevant experience have increased over the past years, the performance of DB projects has not improved significantly. The literature has compared performance across diverse delivery methods and construction sectors; however, the impact of procurement and contract options on DB performance remains underexplored. To address this gap, this study aims to (1) compare cost and time performance for DB projects across two construction sectors, and (2) examine the impact of procurement process and contract type on cost and time performance across sectors. To address the research objectives, this work analyzes data from 127 projects in the transportation and water and wastewater sectors using descriptive statistics and significance tests, such as Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square. Results indicate that transportation DB projects exhibit higher cost and time overruns, performing worse than water and wastewater projects, albeit the differences are not statistically significant. Across all projects, contract type showed no significant impact on cost performance, while procurement process influenced cost, with best-value projects experiencing higher overruns. Time performance, however, remains insensitive to the examined procurement and contracting options. Findings suggest that the procurement process may influence cost outcomes more than contract type and can inform programmatic changes on DB procurement for project owners.