Harley, fair point - however, there are always a few sides to every story. One of the problems DOT faces (really every Govt. agency) when they do a typical Design/Bid/Build job is the following. Because a lot of Contractors bid a job at a very low profit margin, they sometimes look to change order their way to a profit position. Because of that, DOT feels a need to dot every i and cross every t twice. The biggest cause of change orders is incomplete design specs and unforseen conditions. It's a real Catch -22, the State usually has between a 7 and 10% contingency fund. If they put a project on the fast track, change orders are likely to gobble up the contingency. If they do everything to insure no claims, the delays gobble up the contingency. One way around this is to do Design/Build. Here a great deal of the risk is transferred from the DOT to the Contractor. Naturally enough, this is the most expensive and fastest way to build. The days of a 520 bridge going from design to completion in 2 to 3 years is long gone. There are too many differing power groups that have their own ax to grind to allow that to happen. DOT gets the blame - sometimes deserved, most often (IMHO) not.