From Pilot to Practice: What Collaboration Really Looks Like in Delivery

By George Delano, Project Executive at Granite Construction

Over the past 15 years, I’ve had the opportunity to watch collaborative delivery contracting evolve in California’s construction industry. Collaborative delivery takes several names – Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR), Construction Manager/General Contractor (CMGC), or Progressive Design Build (PDB) – but each method shares a fundamental idea: when we bring the contractor, designer, and owner together earlier in the project process, we generate collaboration that supports better outcomes.

Back in the early 2010s, when Caltrans first received legislative authority to pilot CMGC, it was new territory for everyone involved; we were all learning as we went. The first projects, like the SR-99 realignment job I was involved in, were proving grounds for these new methods. As contractors, owners, and designers, we were figuring out what collaboration meant in practice.

At first, there was a natural tendency to stay in familiar lanes. Contractors were cautious about overstepping. Owners were still operating within a design-bid-build mindset. And the result was predictable: progress slowed, innovation stalled, and teams found themselves stuck in processes that didn’t fit the new model.

What changed—and what continues to define successful CMGC projects today—is a willingness to lean into collaboration.

Over time, we learned that collaboration means taking shared ownership of outcomes. That means being willing to challenge assumptions early, bring forward ideas that may not exist in the plans, and sometimes push the conversation forward even when it’s uncomfortable.

At Granite, we’ve seen firsthand how that shift creates better outcomes. Two examples I’d like to point to come from the recently completed American River Bridge Rehabilitation (ARB) project in Sacramento.

Originally, the plans called for a large, driven pile-supported cantilevered retaining wall in a constrained area near residential properties (with swimming pools!). Once we came together to look at constructability, impacts, and risk, it became clear there was a better path. By working collaboratively with the design and owner teams, Granite replaced that original wall with a mechanically stabilized embankment—reducing complexity, improving constructability, and minimizing disruption to the community.

Another example came from the in- and above-water work for the project. Conventional thinking pointed toward building a pile-supported trestle for access. But through early engagement and open dialogue with environmental stakeholders, we explored an alternative: using barges. That shift didn’t just mitigate environmental and flood risk—it also accelerated the schedule by an entire construction season because we didn’t have to spend a season constructing the temporary structure in the waterway.

Those kinds of outcomes don’t come from a single “innovation workshop.” They come from continuous collaboration, where cost, schedule, risk, and constructability are evaluated together. In traditional delivery, innovation is often reactive. In collaborative delivery, it becomes proactive and embedded in the process.

Today, these collaborative methods are mainstream in California. Agencies like Caltrans now have broad authority to use it, and more public owners are exploring how it can help them deliver complex projects more effectively.

It’s important to note that there’s still a learning curve. Success depends on people as much as process. You need teams on all sides—owner, designer, and contractor—who believe in the model, who are willing to be transparent, and who are committed to doing what’s right for the project, even when it’s not the easiest path.

When that alignment is there, the results speak for themselves: smoother delivery, fewer surprises, fewer delays, and projects that reflect true best value—not just lowest first cost.