Title 49 › Subtitle SUBTITLE VII— - AVIATION PROGRAMS › Part PART B— - AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT AND NOISE › Chapter CHAPTER 471— - AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - AIRPORT IMPROVEMENT › § 47142
The Secretary of Transportation can let an airport use an alternative contract to design and build a project if the FAA Administrator approves the airport’s application and the contract form. The Administrator must use set approval criteria and be sure the work will be awarded competitively, include a schematic design, be cost effective and speed up the project, avoid conflicts of interest, and use a selection process as open, fair, and objective as normal competitive bidding with at least 3 bids for each project. The Administrator may pay back an airport for design or construction costs spent before a grant if the project was approved in advance and followed the same grant rules. Within 270 days the Secretary must start a pilot program to allow up to 5 airport building projects to use “integrated project delivery” under similar approval rules, but with at least 2 proposal sets per team. Reimbursements under the pilot must use transparent or open-book accounting. Covered project delivery contract — either a design-plus-construction contract using alternative methods (for example, construction manager-at-risk or progressive design-build) or a single contract that includes the sponsor, builder, and architect-engineer, aligns their interests, and requires transparency and collaboration.
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Transportation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
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Citation
49 U.S.C. § 47142
Title 49 — Transportation
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73