Alternative Project Delivery Methods' Enabling Legislation Trends for California Transportation Agencies
Article
Nacir, C, Shrestha, R, Leothacue-Liauburindr, AB et al. (2025). Alternative Project Delivery Methods' Enabling Legislation Trends for California Transportation Agencies
. JOURNAL OF LEGAL AFFAIRS AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION, 17(4), 10.1061/JLADAH.LADR-1294
Nacir, C, Shrestha, R, Leothacue-Liauburindr, AB et al. (2025). Alternative Project Delivery Methods' Enabling Legislation Trends for California Transportation Agencies
. JOURNAL OF LEGAL AFFAIRS AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION, 17(4), 10.1061/JLADAH.LADR-1294
Because alternative project delivery methods (APDMs) are increasingly being recognized as an effective project delivery strategy for transportation agencies in California, it is necessary to understand the enabling legislation that authorizes agencies to use them. Construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC), design-build (DB), and progressive design-build (PDB) are three of the most used APDMs in California and thus are the focus of this research. The objective of this research is to investigate and analyze the trends in the enactment of APDM bills, focusing on the restrictions and progression of these bills over time to provide insights on how and why such bills evolved. An exhaustive literature review was conducted to identify the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and challenges of each APDM, which provided contextual background of why these bills were proposed initially. Then, using the California Legislative Information website, a total of 26 APDM bills between 1999 and 2024 were collected and analyzed. The content analysis conducted shows an increasing trend in overall enactment of APDM bills with less restrictive terms (number of projects, procurement method, cost, type, expiration, and special approvals or reporting needed), for use by various agencies. Such findings offer transportation agencies a consolidated resource that clarifies the legal and regulatory frameworks supporting the adoption of APDMs. Optimally, such analysis can be used to plan future bills for any state and offer insights on how such legislations are hindering or allowing the use of APDMs.
