Impact of Alternative Delivery on the Response Time of Requests for Information for Highway Projects

Requests for information (RFIs) are a critical communication tool on construction projects. Preparing RFIs and responding to RFIs takes time and money. Unresolved RFIs or slow responses to RFIs may cause delays. The objective of this research is to determine the impact of project delivery methods such as design-bid-build (DBB), construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC), and design-build (DB) on RFI response time. Stochastic simulation with Monte Carlo random sampling was used to model the RFI process. Probability distributions for RFI process steps were developed based on more than 2,000 RFIs across 17 DB, CM/GC, and DBB highway projects. Results indicate a larger number of RFIs for DB projects than for DBB and CM/GC projects, as well as more late RFI responses in DB projects. This suggests that DB projects are more sensitive to the RFI review process and require dedicated attention and resources from the project team to manage the RFI process to prevent delays. Successful RFI practices obtained from practitioners are described to assist with managing the RFI process.