Illuminated steel girders against a night sky
Alain Pham

Alternative delivery  /  $1B and up

Two years before anyone breaks ground.

We have spent thirty-two years inside alternative delivery mega-projects. More than $66 billion of construction value, from every seat at the table, including the one on the hook for the number.

How we work → Read the book

By the time the RFQ is issued, much of the groundwork has already been laid. The owner has been planning for years. The winning team has been reading that planning for two of them.

Mega-projects are anything over a billion dollars, and most of them are highway, transit, bridge and aviation work. They are extraordinarily complex, they are unforgiving, and they are not won by whoever writes the best proposal in ninety days.

We bring a process: target early, decide on a form, plan the execution while you are still pricing it, and hold the whole thing to numbers that predict trouble instead of reporting it.

Long exposure light trails on a highway at night
Neal Kuntaguldusdee

The record behind the firm

Four decades of it. Including the one that went wrong.

$66B Construction value Across dozens of alternative delivery projects, as consultant, lead designer, owner's representative and executive.
32 Years inside alternative delivery Since 1993, when design-build was still an argument rather than a market. Forty years in civil engineering altogether.
25% Win rate Twenty-five alternative delivery projects won, worth $15.1 billion of construction value. On mega-project pursuits, one in four is a strong number.
10–19% EBIT delivered On twenty-two of the twenty-three projects carried as principal-in-charge, project director, design director, deputy director or COO. The twenty-third went to a major claim, and there is a chapter about it.
$9B On the owner's side Eight owner-side projects, representing the owner rather than the bidder. We have read the proposals as well as written them.

Also on the ledger: 12 P3 transportation projects worth about $28.3 billion, $14.9 billion carried in executive delivery roles, work in 36 states and parts of Canada, and board seats at three engineering firms since February 2020.

A construction site under floodlights at night beside an elevated highway
famingjia inventor

The proposal and the execution are one conversation. Teams that separate them file claims.

Michael S. Shapiro, PE

The principal

Michael S. Shapiro, PE

Founder. Licensed professional engineer, member of ASCE, and a board member at three engineering firms since 2020.

He moved into alternative delivery in 1993 and has since sat on every side of the table: consulting, lead design, owner's representative, proposal lead, principal-in-charge, project director, chief operating officer. He works out of Phoenix and travels to the job.

In 2025 he published Mega-Projects Unlocked, which is the process this firm runs, written down.

Alternative delivery mega-projects are not for the meek or the inexperienced. Michael S. Shapiro, PE, in Mega-Projects Unlocked

Engagements

Two ways we work. Both of them hands on.

We are not a deck vendor. We work alongside your executives and your delivery team, on your cadence, until the plan is running without us.

01

Operations

For CEOs, presidents, COOs and boards who need an experienced operator inside the business rather than a report about it.

Build the operating plan, then hold the organization to it. We work directly with the executive team, audit what is actually happening, and fix the functions that quietly decide whether a good year happens.

  • One year, five year and twenty year strategic operating plans, then the discipline to execute, monitor and modify them
  • Direct work with the CEO, President, COO, CFO and SVP of Business Development
  • Leadership and oversight for regional business leaders; strategic organizational charts
  • KPIs that mean something: EBIT, gross and net revenue, overhead, retention
  • Operational performance audits
  • Back office, quality and safety functions organized, monitored and implemented
  • Leadership training and mentoring, plus identifying the strategic hires
  • Standing up a design center inside a contractor for design-build work
02

Project execution

For teams inside, or about to be inside, a $1B alternative delivery project. Including the ones that are already going sideways.

Plan the delivery while you are still writing the proposal, then run the startup like it matters, because the first hundred days set the margin for the next four years.

  • Project execution plans, and the 30 / 60 / 120 day startup plan
  • Project policies, management guidelines and procedures written before mobilization
  • KPIs that predict trouble: earned value, client satisfaction, teaming partner performance, risk, quality, safety, claims
  • Project audit procedures and checklists
  • Quarterly review and reporting cadence
  • Root cause analysis and recovery of faltering projects
  • Project close-out plans
  • Coaching, training and mentoring for the delivery team

Strategy development

Not a third practice. Growth strategy, pursuit targeting and win strategy are the connective tissue of the two engagements above, and we will take them on their own when that is genuinely what you need.

  • Growth strategy: build it, execute it, then modify it when the market moves
  • Pursuit targeting and win strategy for named opportunities
  • Client relationships: the decision makers, the influencers, the hot buttons
  • Competitor knowledge, kept current
  • Proposal and interview preparation, owned end to end
  • Board level advisory
A cable-stayed bridge lit at night
Kilian Murphy

Fifty-one alternative delivery projects, and we have sat on every side of the table.

Selected programs

Named work, on the record.

The Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge over the Hudson River Aron L

Tappan Zee Hudson River Crossing

Design-build replacement crossing, New York State

Design-build
A modern airport terminal concourse Eric Prouzet

San Diego International Airport

SAN Terminal Airport Improvement Program, Regional Airport Authority

Aviation · representative image
Aerial view of a freeway interchange in desert terrain Jason Leung

I-17

Design-build corridor work, Phoenix, Arizona

Design-build · representative image
Aerial view of a highway junction Jaume Jovell

Trunk Highway 212

Design-build, Chaska, Minnesota

Design-build · representative image
Aerial view of a highway interchange lit at night Paddma Sambhav

ADOT Management Consultant

East Papago, Hohokam and Sky Harbor Access

Owner side · representative image
Aerial view of an urban freeway network at dusk David Kristianto

ADOT General Engineering Consultant

Proposition 300 program, Maricopa County

Owner side · representative image

Michael's alternative delivery experience spans 51 projects totaling $66 billion in construction value across highways, bridges, transit, rail, aviation, toll roads, managed lanes, and public-private partnerships. Working for owners, design-builders, developers and engineering firms, he has served in roles ranging from proposal and design leadership to principal-in-charge, project director, owner's representative and chief operating officer, across 36 states and parts of Canada.

Mega-Projects Unlocked, by Michael S. Shapiro, PE

Out now

Mega-Projects Unlocked

The Insider's Guide to Winning, Managing, and Profiting from Alternative Delivery

Game Changer Publishing  /  2025  /  Michael S. Shapiro, PE

The process for winning a billion dollar project and then actually making money on it. Start the research two years before the RFQ. Put go and no-go decisions on a form. Approach teaming partners deliberately. Plan the execution while you are still pricing the work.

The case studies include the projects that went wrong, because that is where the lessons live. Separate chapters cover owners and developers, who have a different problem than the contractors chasing them.

Buy on Amazon → Get the worksheets
Paperback Hardcover Barnes & Noble Reviewed in ASCE Civil Engineering Source

The companion toolkit

Six working documents from the book.

The actual checklists, outlines and matrices Michael built and used on alternative delivery projects. Not summaries of them. Ask and we will send the set.

Email us for the toolkit →

Goes straight to Michael. Tell him your role and he will send the right ones first.

  • 30 / 60 / 120 Day Startup ChecklistWhat has to be true in the first four months of an AD project.
  • Design-Build Philosophy Presentation OutlineThe talk we give when a firm is deciding to enter design-build.
  • Small Design-Construct Projects WorkshopFull agenda and detailed outline from the Coral Gables workshop.
  • The Design-Construct Group's RoleWhere the design-construct group sits and what it owns.
  • Design-Construct Risk Assessment MatrixThe risk register we start every pursuit with.
  • Phoenix Infrastructure PresentationPresentation to AMP-CT Solutions on the Phoenix infrastructure market.

In the news

Where the work gets talked about.

Written by Michael

Making profits on alternative delivery mega-projects The process, end to end, including the numbers on 23 projects and the one that went to claim. Dec 2022 Employee retention Six of the top seven reasons people leave have nothing to do with money. What that costs you. Nov 2022 How to improve your win rate on alternative delivery mega-projects Everything that has to happen before the RFQ is issued, in order. Oct 2022
Steel truss bridge structure lit against a night sky
Tsuyoshi Kozu

Contact

Chasing something big? Start the conversation early.

The best time to call is well before the RFQ. The second best time is the day you realize the project is not going the way the pricing said it would.

Write to us michaelshapiro.az@gmail.com
Based in
Phoenix, Arizona

No intake team, no contact form. The address above reaches Michael directly.