America’s water utilities are under pressure from aging infrastructure operating beyond its intended lifecycle, tightening regulatory requirements and increased demands on already stressed systems. Utilities are being asked to deliver major capital improvements while balancing affordability, workforce shortages and public accountability.
As the water industry enters a new era of infrastructure investment, the challenge is no longer identifying what needs to be built. It is figuring out how to deliver projects faster, with greater certainty and less risk. That reality is reshaping project delivery.
For decades, utilities relied on Design-Bid-Build (DBB), where engineering and construction are procured separately. The model often surfaces risk too late in the process, creating coordination gaps between designers, contractors and owners.
Collaborative delivery approaches, including Progressive Design-Build (PDB) and collaborative design-build delivery, improve speed, cost predictability and project outcomes.
Here are four reasons utilities are rethinking how they deliver infrastructure projects.
1. Predictable Delivery Starts Earlier in the Process
Progressive Design-Build brings engineering, construction and owner teams together earlier in the project lifecycle. Rather than designing a project in isolation and handing it off to contractors later, utilities can align scope, constructability, schedule and pricing during early project development. The goal is to improve coordination and reduce uncertainty before construction begins. With better scope definition, cost predictability and greater stakeholder alignment earlier in the process, late-stage changes and claims are reduced and projects can be delivered with more speed. For utilities managing aggressive schedules or technically complex projects, these advantages can help improve overall project predictability.
2. Complex Infrastructure Demands Better Support
Many public agencies are managing complicated capital programs with limited staff to coordinate multiple contractors, absorb redesigns or manage procurement delays. At the same time, many utilities are still early in their design-build journey.
When transitioning into collaborative design-build models, utilities face common barriers:
- Limited internal familiarity with collaborative delivery
- Procurement and statutory constraints
- Concerns around pricing transparency and governance
- Uncertainty around risk allocation and project roles
Collaborative delivery models can help address these challenges through earlier coordination between engineering, construction and utility teams.
3. Speed and Certainty Must Work Together
While design-build is often associated with faster delivery, many utilities today are equally focused on gaining confidence in governance, transparency and operational outcomes.
Early collaboration between stakeholders can help utilities better evaluate scope, sequencing and constructability during project development.
In collaborative delivery models, utilities can prioritize:
- Transparent pricing and scope
- Early constructability input
- Unified project governance
- Water-focused engineering expertise
- Commissioning and startup continuity
- Integrated planning and construction coordination
The broader focus is less about accelerating construction alone and more about improving coordination and reducing downstream project disruption.
4. Delivery Has Become Part of Resilience Conversations
The pressures facing water utilities are not temporary. Utilities are simultaneously managing PFAS treatment requirements, aging infrastructure replacement, industrial growth, climate resilience investments, affordability pressures and workforce shortages.
Delivery strategy has become part of the resilience conversation. How projects get delivered now directly affects financial stability, workforce efficiency, public trust and operational continuity.
Collaborative delivery models allow project decisions to happen earlier, when scope, sequencing and procurement strategies are still flexible.
Greater Resilience Starts with a Bolder Vision
Projects like Pure Water Soquel in California illustrate why utilities are increasingly exploring collaborative delivery approaches for complex infrastructure programs.
Developed through a design-build agreement, the project is helping the Soquel Creek Water District address groundwater depletion, seawater intrusion and water supply resilience through water purification and reuse. The program integrates treatment, conveyance and groundwater replenishment across multiple agencies, regulators and stakeholders — the kind of complexity that utilities say is pushing them to reconsider how projects are planned and delivered.
Responding to Growing Infrastructure Pressures
Based on a survey of more than 600 U.S. water industry leaders, the 2026 Water Report results show momentum in adapting how utilities plan, deliver and collaborate to keep pace with mounting challenges. But the window between awareness and readiness is narrowing, and the margins for reactive planning are shrinking with it.
Pre-register to download the 2026 annual Water Report for a data-driven view into the challenges and opportunities shaping the industry.
