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Abstract

Public infrastructure construction project delays in Ethiopia have become a major obstacle for the on-time, on-budget and successful delivery of schools, hospitals, roads, rails, housings, and water supply projects. Delays in Ethiopian infrastructure projects have been causing time overrun, cost overrun and, in severe cases, termination of projects. This study aims to investigate and determine the critical causes of delays in public infrastructure construction projects in Ethiopia and recommend mitigation measures.

Two hundred sixty-five causes of delay in the Ethiopian public infrastructure construction projects were collected from 21 case studies and research on different infrastructure projects across the country. These collected causes of delays were then categorised based on their type and relation to responsible stakeholders. To analyse and compare the critical causes of delay amongst these collected 265 causes, the different impact index measures assigned in each study and the number of mentions of each cause across the different studies were considered. Since different authors used different index measures for the causes of delays, they identified that it was necessary to convert all the index measures into a unified index measure for analysis. Before statically studying unified index measures of each cause homogeneity, the data collected was checked using the Levene test. The Pareto chart was used to determine critical causes of delays on both the mention count and average unified index measures. Finally, using methodological triangulation, the results from the two approaches were compared and generated 16 critical causes of delays.

The study found that the main causes of public infrastructure construction project delay to be design change, frequent changes in scope by the client, poor project management, late deliveries of materials and equipment, difficulties in financing the project by the contractor, poor planning and scheduling of the project,shortage of contractor’s equipment and machinery, difficulty in financing the project by the client, price inflation and economic condition, poor qualification of contractor's technical staff, delayed payments to contractors, errors in designs and working drawings, inaccurate site investigation, difficult site conditions and poor communication and planning by the client. Finally, identifying the main causes of delay in the Ethiopian infrastructure projects will help direct the government and other stakeholders in the sector on which areas to work on and improve. This study will contribute to achieving on-time and on-budget completion of infrastructure projects in Ethiopia, directly ensuring sustainable growth and development

Course: Construction Project Management - MSc - C1659

Date Deposited: 2022-03-28

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13867.html