Description
This session shifts from a single-project narrative to a set of transferable practices for applying a Design-Build approach in complex, high-volume urban corridors. Drawing on scope of the project being the rehabilitation of seven bridges along the Grand Central Parkway between Union Turnpike and Commonwealth Boulevard in Queens, New York, the session uses this project as a living laboratory – an ongoing, real-world setting in which broader delivery strategies can be observed, tested, and discussed – rather than as the primary subject itself. rather than the primary focus. The emphasis is on innovative concepts such as organizing work into design units aligned with construction staging, overlapping design and construction to compress schedule, and using structured Alternative Technical Concepts (ATCs) to refine traffic staging, structural details, and construction sequencing. Attendees will be exposed to strategies for executing complex staging (e.g., reducing stages and eliminating high-risk work-zone configurations), using advanced details like UHPC link slabs to extend service life, and building integrated quality, safety, and risk-management frameworks that reduce schedule risk. Rather than walking through a single project’s chronology, the presentation will focus on lessons learned and efficiency techniques employed, decision frameworks, and proven auditable workflows that practitioners can adapt to their own Design-Build and alternative-delivery programs.
Sophistication Level of Presentation: Advanced
The session assumes familiarity with highway/bridge rehabilitation, construction staging, and alternative delivery (Design-Build, CMGC, etc.). It is targeted to practitioners involved in planning, designing, managing, or administering complex transportation projects under innovative delivery models.
Learning Objectives:
After this session, participants will be able to:
1. Explain and apply a reusable framework for structuring Design-Build contracts for corridor-wide bridge rehabilitation, including performance-based requirements, design units aligned with staging, and overlapping design-construction phases.
2. Implement systems-based thinking on multi-bridge programs in constrained right-of-way, coordinating deck replacements, targeted repairs, drainage, lighting, signing, and guide rail upgrades to minimize mobilizations and traffic impacts.
3. Design and evaluate Alternative Technical Concepts (ATCs) and other innovation mechanisms that optimize staging, traffic control, and structural details while maintaining safety, durability, and regulatory compliance.
4. Deploy integrated quality, safety, and risk-management systems tailored to Design-Build, including unified quality plans, independent verification strategies, critical-path risk tracking, and project-specific safety programs.
5. Adapt these innovation practices to their own agencies or organizations, including how to embed requirements for equity, environmental stewardship, and participation goals without stifling creativity.
Audience:
• Transportation and bridge project managers
• Owner-agency representatives (DOTs, public works, transportation authorities)
• Design-Build and alternative-delivery practitioners (designers, builders, CM/CEI)
• Structural and highway engineers involved in corridor or multi-bridge programs
• Construction managers and traffic operations engineers responsible for work-zone staging
• Quality, safety, and risk managers on large infrastructure projects
• Policy and program managers overseeing Design-Build and innovative delivery initiatives
