NEW YORK CITY—New York City is in a period of unprecedented growth, with population, tourism and private sector development hovering around all-time highs. Of course, this surge in popularity is increasingly straining the city's aging infrastructure networks, which were already in dire need of expansion, modernization and, in some cases, replacement.

For this reason, the New York Building Congress has made the extension of design-build authorization to city government a top priority for 2018. Design-build is a highly efficient and streamlined approach to public sector building that combines the design and construction of a project into a single contract, allowing for more effective collaboration between designers and contractors.

Design-build is already in use at five New York State agencies. Under the leadership of Governor Andrew Cuomo, it has been used to great success on a range of new bridges, airport facilities and schools, as well as for emergency construction following Superstorm Sandy. The resulting reductions in both cost and schedule have been dramatic.