'All-parties' risk assessment lowers project price 27%: Utah DOT convened four “opinions of probable construction cost” (OPCC) workshops for a multimodal transportation system. The designers' assessment of risk (OPCC1) was, as usual, lower than the contractor's. At 30% design completion, OPCC2A included the contractor's assessment, which factors in unknown risks. OPCC3 and 4 focused on mitigating risks. If awarded at 30% design — when a contractor is selected in design-build — the Mountain View Corridor would have cost $126 million more than the final $223 million price tag. Unlike design-build, the owner rather than the contractor keeps the savings.
Utah DOT found that with the CM/GC approach, change orders and overruns are 40% to 60% less than with design-bid-build. In addition, it achieves a cost savings of 6% to 12% for innovation and 15% to 22% for risk management.
