Advances in Engineering Advances in Engineering features breaking research judged by Advances in Engineering advisory team to be of key importance in the Engineering field. Papers are selected from over 10,000 published each week from most peer reviewed journals.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Volume 139, Issue 5, 480-487, ( 2013)
Travis R. Johnson, P.E.; Peter Feng, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE; William Sitzabee, Ph.D., P.E.; Mark Jernigan.
Capt, USAF, 820th RED HORSE Squadron, Nellis AFB, NV 89191 (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]
Lt Col, USAF, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright Patterson AFB, OH 45433. E-mail: [email protected]
Lt Col, USAF, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright Patterson AFB, OH 45433. E-mail: [email protected]
Instructor, The Civil Engineer School, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright Patterson AFB, OH 45433. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
The U.S. federal construction sector led the development of partnering as a project-delivery method and continues to use it as standard practice. Alliancing has since emerged as an evolution of the partnering method and offers substantial advantages over partnering, but it also poses more difficulties with federal acquisition regulations. This research aims to determine if an alliancing contract can be effectively utilized in federal construction and, if so, to create a framework under which federal agencies can utilize the advantages of alliance contracts within existing regulations. A commercially available standard form alliancing contract was selected for analysis against the Federal Acquisition Regulation. Key practices that characterize the alliancing method were identified. Utilizing a panel of federal contracting experts, qualitative data were gathered to analyze which of these key practices do or do not comply with federal regulations, why certain practices do not comply, and how those practices could achieve compliance. The results show that most alliancing key practices can be utilized in a federal construction project. Although other practices cannot be used effectively under current regulations, these limitations do not significantly hinder the use of a comprehensive and effective federal alliancing contract.
