Wisconsin Legislature: 2004-12-01 Assembly Journal

The purpose of this letter is to serve as a cover for the Design-Build 6th St. Bridge report. Section 84.11 (5n)(c), Stats., requires "no later than 5 years after October 29, 1999, the department shall submit a report to the governor, and to the legislature under s. 13.172(2), describing the effectiveness of the design-build process contracting procedures under this subsection."

The $49.5 million Design-Build 6th St. Bridge contract was awarded on June 30, 2000 with work beginning on August 2, 2000. The new bridge was opened to traffic on September 4, 2002. This report, also submitted to the Federal Highway Administration, under the provisions of Special Experimental Project No. 14 (SEP), discusses scope of work, history of the project, evaluation criteria, selection process, contract administration, work progression, time and cost comparisons between the traditional contracting method design-bid-build and design-build, claims and changes.

A997 Several months ago, I charged a multi-stakeholder work group with evaluating the Design-Build contracting method. That work group's objectives were to provide me with a report that consisted of a review of the proposals of the previous WisDOT Design/Build study (completed in 2001), a study of recent and past examples of other states' experiences with implementing design-build, best practices and lessons learned, and input from all stakeholders. Our analyses, along with the successful completion of the 6th St. Bridge project, indicate that design-build can work in Wisconsin.

As we move forward fulfilling our role in sustaining and growing Wisconsin's economy, we recognize that we have great challenges. The design-build delivery method is an additional tool to help us deliver our complex improvement program. It enables the Department of Transportation to contract with a single entity for both design and construction services on an entire project. It provides opportunities for innovation, accelerated completion time and a higher level of cost-certainty. The attractiveness of design-build lies primarily in the potential for innovation in project staging and construction methods that stems from the design-builder collaboration.

Sincerely,

Frank J. Busalacchi

Secretary

Referred to committee on Transportation.

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State of Wisconsin
Department of Administration
Madison

October 29, 2004

To the Honorable, the Legislature:

This report is transmitted as required by s. 20.002(11)(f), Wisconsin Statutes, (for distribution to the appropriate standing committees under s. 13.172(3), Wisconsin Statutes), and confirms that the Department of Administration has found it necessary to exercise the "temporary reallocation of balances" authority provided by this section in order to meet payment responsibilities and cover resulting negative cash balances during the month of September 2004.

On September 1, 2004, the Medical Assistance Trust Fund cash balance closed at its intramonth low of a negative $199.1 million. The fund's negative cash balance continued through September 30, 2004, when the fund's cash balance closed at a negative $195.9 million. The deficit is due to federal revenues falling short of estimates included in 2003 Wisconsin Act 33.