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Representative John Voss Proposes 'Progressive Design-Build' Option for Missouri Municipalities
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Summary
Rep. John Voss introduced HB2474 to add a progressive design-build procurement option for local governments; municipal officials and engineering firms testified in support, citing speed, accountability and examples from Cape Girardeau, MoDOT projects and Kansas-side development.
Representative John Voss, of Cape Girardeau (District 147), told the House Committee on Economic Development that House Bill 2474 would add a progressive design-build procurement option to the menu of tools available to Missouri municipalities.
"A progressive design build really approaches the project where there may not be a level of certainty going into understanding what the scope or the requirements really are going to be," Voss said, describing the multistage process that shortlists qualified design-build teams and moves the chosen team into a discovery phase before finalizing cost and scope. He told the committee the substitute clarifies language by removing annual CPI indexing and returns to the original change sought by the sponsor.
Municipal officials and private-sector witnesses backed the measure. Doug Wesselschmidt, public works director for Grandview, said progressive design-build "gets us speed to construction," citing KDOT's use for infrastructure around a Panasonic plant in DeSoto, Kansas. Joe Perry, speaking as a private citizen with the Lee's Summit Economic Development Council, said progressive design-build "allows you to keep the best, most knowledgeable people" across phases and helps avoid repeated market rebidding. Industry witnesses — including representatives of the Missouri Municipal League, Burns & McDonnell, and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Missouri — testified in support.
Committee members asked about competition and pricing in the progressive process. Voss and witnesses explained that the process begins with a qualifications-based shortlisting of firms and moves into more-detailed proposals, with the final guaranteed maximum price set in a later phase. Voss said municipalities retain the choice of procurement method and are not required to use progressive design-build.
No registered opponents spoke on the record in the hearing recorded in the transcript. The committee opened the record to for-and-against testimony and limited remarks to three minutes per witness; no vote on HB2474 was recorded in the transcript.