Best Practices: Steel Construction and the Expanding Role of the Structural Engineer on a Design-Build Team

Current steel construction practice encourages the structural engineer of record (EOR) to rely heavily on others for design of deferred submittals and other "contractor to provide" items including steel trusses, metal studs and, regionally, primary framing connections. Design engineers abdicate responsibility, due in part to the fee-driven marketplace, thereby increasing risk to the project, the team and the public.

But has the responsibility truly been transferred or only fragmented and made more difficult to assign?

Structural engineers are uniquely qualified to function as a critical part of the design-build team and, with this delivery method, reassume sole responsibility for the safety and performance of the structure, its cladding, and secondary elements. A single engineering contact is provided for the builder. The engineer is able, working in concert with the contractor, to provide a coordinated set of documents with a clearly defined scope for the trade designers to implement.

Experience fulfilling the role of EOR, metal stud designer, and connection design subcontractor to the steel fabricator provides many lessons learned from which we can share some advantages of design-build delivery.

Advantages:

• Practical engineering solutions. The design-bid-build environment has distanced the design engineer from the engineer/builder of the past, given the advent of computers, minimal site visits, and fragmentation of design responsibilities. The design-build engineer finds a resource for practical knowledge when aligning themselves with the construction side of the business.
• Fully coordinated set of documents. A design-build project mandates that one engineer be responsible for all aspects of the design, replacing typical details with project-specific design details. This leads to the engineer's full understanding of the detail requirements of the job.
• Sole contact responsibility. The design-build team benefits from a single point of contact for engineering design by pulling in the fragmented design responsibilities (steel studs/skin design, specific connection details, etc.).
• Expedited schedule. Although the design schedule may increase, significant time savings can be realized during the shop drawing phase, fabrication, and building coordination during construction through the use of a fully coordinated set.
• Safer/better performing buildings. No design element is missing, with the entire design under one lead engineer. Elements, from steel stud connections to edge of slab support by top chord extension, are fully detailed in the construction documents.
• Enhanced scope definition. The design-build team has the ability to clearly define sub-contractor's project scope with all the design elements considered in the construction documents. This will lead to better prices and fewer construction problems.

When selecting the design-build method, some consideration should also be given to the ideas that; an inexperienced engineer may not appreciate the different scope and responsibilities of the various trades, thus creating details that require the coordination of multiple subcontractors; additional design time is required, as mentioned above, due to the increase in the engineer's responsibility and scope, the engineer's learning curve might define the critical path; the engineer takes on increased liability; the historically good relationship of steel fabricators/erectors and the EOR is critical to the success of any design-build venture (specifically steel designs) a better overall product unfolds when both engineer and fabricator/erector understand each other's business and risk; and finally, the design fee structure needs revamping, from the design-bid-build mentality, given the expanded engineering scope and responsibilities and the fact that engineers are sharing in the risk of performing pre-award work for projects that are sometimes lost.

Design-build teaming offers a way to glue the fragmented responsibility into a sole source contact capable of realizing the benefits described in the above list of advantages. Owners, contractors, fabricators, erectors, and designers all benefit from (1) practical engineering solutions, (2) fully coordinated sets of documents, (3) sole contact responsibility, (4) expedited schedules, (5) safer/better performing buildings and (6) enhanced scope definition.