I disagree with the Toronto engineer's negative view of traditional "design/build" public projects.
However, I agree with the comment that "either way..." (i.e. whether public employees or private companies operate the facility), the "operations guys must be involved in the design process."
That, to my mind, is the key point of the whole article.
To reiterate, it is not that the "design/build" process is necessarily flawed, but that it wasn't carried out properly in this case because they didn't involve public "operation guys" in the process. That's the lesson here.
Re: “How the sewage plant broke”
I disagree with the Toronto engineer's negative view of traditional "design/build" public projects.
However, I agree with the comment that "either way..." (i.e. whether public employees or private companies operate the facility), the "operations guys must be involved in the design process."
That, to my mind, is the key point of the whole article.
To reiterate, it is not that the "design/build" process is necessarily flawed, but that it wasn't carried out properly in this case because they didn't involve public "operation guys" in the process. That's the lesson here.