Engineering, Project, and Production Management
EPPM 2012 Conference Papers
Why the Construction Quality of Design-build Projects Is Not Satisfactory?—A Queensland Study
David Balson1 , Jason Gray2 and Bo Xia3
1 QUT Student, C/ School of Civil
Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George
Street, Brisbane, Queensland, 4001, Australia;. PH: +61 7 3138 1060; FAX: +61 7
3138 1170; Email: jm.gray@qut.edu.au
2 Lecturer, School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment,
Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4001, QLD,
Australia, Tel: +61731381060, Fax: +6131381170, E-mail: jm.gray@qut.edu.au
3 Lecturer, School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment,
Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4001, QLD,
Australia, Tel:+61731384373, Fax:+6131381170, E-mail: paul.xia@qut.edu.au
Abstract:Design-build (DB) system is well-known to be a popular and effective delivery method of construction work worldwide. It has been demonstrated as superior to the traditional delivery system in regards to time and cost performance. However, it suffers a major flaw, in that the performance of project quality cannot be guaranteed. This paper aims to investigate the underlying factors attributing to the poor quality performance of designbuild projects in Queensland. Five major factors were first identified through a comprehensive literature review, which relate to (1) project briefing and scope definition, (2) client’s role and responsibility, (3) procurement selection, (4) contractor’s incentive, and (5) design document quality. A questionnaire survey with 127 DB professionals was conducted to determine how these factors affect various quality criteria, i.e. functional quality, architectural quality, technical quality, workmanship quality, client satisfaction and overall quality. With the architectural quality reduced greatly, the research findings reveal that the DB projects in Queensland have the reduced overall quality compared with traditional projects. The impacts of different factors on the quality performance of DB projects have been closely examined and summarized. The research findings will facilitate project stakeholder’s better understanding of the delivery process of the DB system and provide guidelines to improve the quality performance.
Keywords:design-build, quality performance, Queensland
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