Across Australia, design-delivery disconnects continue to drive cost overruns and project delays. For project owners and government bodies, this gap represents one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in infrastructure delivery.
In this blog, KPMC outlines the key causes of the design-delivery gap and the strategies and technologies that can ensure what is designed is precisely what gets built.
Understanding the Design-Delivery Gap in Construction
The design-delivery gap is the breakdown that happens when a project’s core intent isn’t accurately translated into the final built asset. This disconnect typically appears in complex projects where numerous teams and competing priorities intersect.
The consequences can become severe and multifaceted:
- Costly Rework: Correcting errors on-site is exponentially more expensive than fixing them on paper. Studies consistently show design-related rework can consume as much as 30% of construction costs.
- Schedule Drift: Unforeseen changes and corrections lead to significant delays, affecting project milestones and completion dates.
- Compromised Quality and Safety: On-the-fly workarounds can compromise structural integrity and critical safety protocols, which in turn influence long-term performance.
- Eroded Stakeholder Confidence: Persistent issues and budget overruns can damage the trust of clients, investors, and the public.
Effective design management depends on closing this gap before construction begins through integrated planning, early contractor engagement, and a culture of shared responsibility.
Primary Causes of Design-Delivery Disconnects
To prevent the gap, it’s essential to understand its origins, which can be found in traditional project workflows:
- Communication Barriers and Team Silos:
Traditional models, like Design-Bid-Build, often isolate design and construction phases. This creates information silos in which architects and contractors work independently, leading to vital context being lost in translation. This can lead to misinterpretations of design intent and costly delays.
- Late Contractor Involvement:
Engaging builders only after the design is finalized means missing out on crucial constructability insights. An experienced contractor can identify design elements that are impractical, unnecessarily expensive, or time-consuming to build on-site. Without this early input, late-stage redesigns and improvised workarounds become almost inevitable.
- Incomplete or Ambiguous Documentation:
When drawings or models lack sufficient detail or contain conflicting information, construction teams are forced to make assumptions. Even well-intentioned assumptions can diverge significantly from the original design objectives, introducing risk and possible reworks.
- Fragmented Risk Allocation:
Conventional contracts place design risk, construction risk, and financial risk on separate parties. This creates a defensive, blame-oriented environment where collaboration is stifled, as each party prioritizes mitigating its own liabilities over achieving the best overall project outcome.
- Technology and Data Gaps:
A continued reliance on 2D documentation makes it difficult to visualize and coordinate complex systems and interfaces. Without a unified digital platform or Common Data Environment (CDE), clashes between mechanical, electrical, and structural systems may only be discovered during construction.
At KPMC, our expertise in construction project management directly addresses these challenges. We establish structured communication frameworks and robust document control systems to ensure design intent for design and delivery in construction is perfectly preserved.
Proven Strategies for Aligning Design and Delivery
Effectively bridging the design-delivery gap requires a coordinated strategy that integrates people, processes, and technology. Several modern delivery models have proven highly effective in improving efficiency and cost certainty:
I. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)
IPD brings the owner, designer, and contractor together under a single multi-party contract in which risk and reward are shared. This model contractually aligns all stakeholder incentives with the overall project success, fostering a culture of collaboration and transparency from the very beginning.
Key Benefits: Research from organizations like the Lean Construction Institute highlights IPD’s power, showing projects using this model have significantly fewer defects and design-related changes compared to traditional methods. This is a direct result of early coordination and shared accountability.
II. Design-Build Delivery
The Design-Build model streamlines the entire process by consolidating design and construction delivery under a single entity. This creates a unified workflow with one point of responsibility, eliminating the silos that affect traditional projects. The integrated team can make real-time adjustments as site conditions unfold, ensuring design and construction remain in sync.
Key Benefits: According to the Design-Build Institute of America, Design-Build projects are delivered up to 36% faster during construction and 102% faster over the entire project lifecycle compared to traditional routes.
III. Building Information Modelling (BIM)
BIM is a process, not just software. It creates a shared digital twin of the project, allowing all stakeholders to coordinate and visualize every component in 3D. Advanced BIM applications add further layers of data, including 4D (time/scheduling) and 5D (cost), creating a comprehensive project model.
Key Benefits: Studies indicate that BIM-enabled coordination delivers a consistent improvement in return on investment by preventing errors and reducing rework. When combined with cloud-based collaboration tools, BIM also enhances remote access, allowing teams to make informed decisions regardless of location.
KPMC’s Proven Approach to Infrastructure Project Delivery
At Kubri, our approach is built on a framework that keeps design objectives, construction realities, and client expectations perfectly aligned. Our team’s expertise is specialized in complex civil works, including steel structures, bridges, rail, roads, and bulk earthworks. This deep engineering knowledge allows us to provide practical, proactive project management.
Our team has delivered this approach across multiple major programs, including:
- Western Roads Upgrade: Managed project completion and handover with clear documentation and quality assurance.
- Princes Highway East (Stage 3): Developed construction methodologies that ensured design accuracy and delivery efficiency.
- West Gate Tunnel Project: Led engineering teams delivering structural and civil packages under stringent quality control.
- Monash Freeway Upgrade: Oversaw bridge and piling planning, ensuring constructability and schedule compliance.
Our Commercial & Contract Management services further reinforce this link, ensuring documentation accuracy and strict cost control. By embedding these practices, we establish a clear and unbreakable chain between design integrity and financial performance.
From Vision to Reality Without Compromise
Bridging the design-delivery gap requires deliberate collaboration, transparent communication, and structured management from the project’s earliest stages. Kubri Project Management & Consulting translates these principles into practice through technical expertise and a results-driven approach that ensures what is designed is delivered accurately and without compromise.
Contact the KPMC team to learn how our project management expertise can align your design and delivery for greater certainty and measurable success.