Sec. 1. 5 MRSA §1743, as amended by PL 1989, c. 596, Pt. N, §3, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:

§1743.__Competitive bids

1.__Competitive bids.__A contract for any public improvement that the State or any of its agencies hold in fee involving a total cost in excess of $100,000, except contracts for professional, architectural and engineering services, may be awarded by the Department of Administrative and Financial Services through the Bureau of General Services, under a system of competitive bidding in accordance with chapters 141 to 155 and other conditions and restrictions the Governor may prescribe.

2.__Methods of construction.__A public improvement under subsection 1 may be undertaken using the design-build, construction-manager-at-risk or construction-manager-advisor method of construction or the services of an owner's representative.

A.__The design-build method must generally follow those guidelines developed by a national architects, general contractors or design-build organization or a combined or modified version of those entities, with the final design- build procedures and documents to be determined at the sole discretion of the Bureau of General Services.__The Bureau of General Services is permitted to prequalify design-build teams using criteria that must include at a minimum those set forth in section 1747 but may also include criteria considered appropriate by the Director of General Services, in the director's sole discretion.__The Director of General Services shall adopt policies and procedures to implement this paragraph.__Such policies and procedures may include payment of a stipend to any design-build team that has been qualified to submit and does submit a proposal.

B.__The construction-manager-at-risk method must generally follow the concepts set forth in a standard form of agreement between an owner and a construction manager when the construction manager is also the constructor as established by national architects or general contractor organizations, with the final documents to be determined at the sole discretion of the Director of General Services.

C.__The construction-manager-advisor method, sometimes referred to as the "agent-construction-manager method," must generally follow the standard scope of services employed by the Bureau of General Services.