Causes of Delay in Public Building Construction Projects: A Case of Addis Abeba Administration, Ethiopia

Abstract

The time overrun in construction projects has become one of the most common problems in the industry that cause multitude of negative effects on the projects and its stakeholders. This study focused on assessing the main causes of delay in public building construction projects in Addis Ababa Administration mainly undertaken by grade one contractors. In these projects, 42 delay causing events in the Addis Ababa public building construction projects were identified and categorized in to five main category groups, and the most important and critical causes of public building construction delay causing factors were evaluated and ranked based on the RRI(Ranking and computation of relative importance index)values from the data collected in a questionnaire survey of three groups of respondents- clients, consultant and contractors in the construction industry. The survey findings revealed the top ten factors that cause construction delays in the public building construction projects in Addis Ababa are: (1) Difficulty in project financing (poor financial system); (2) Poor Project management system;(3) Delay in issuance of designs and working drawings; (4) Shortage of availability of imported construction materials and goods on market; (5) Design errors and complexity of designs;(6)Delay in progress payments for completed works; (7) Late start & resource mobilization to site; (8) Financing problems; (9) Inaccurate Site investigation Report;(10) Price Inflation. Furthermore, the ranking of the factors tested the agreement among the respondents and finally agreement test reveal that there appears a positivecorrelation between the groups in noticing and ranking the set of delay causes. The study recommended in general and particularly to all the parties for mitigating factors causing time overrun.

Perception-Based Assessment of the Factors Causing Delays in Construction Projects

“…The completion of projects can be significantly influenced by several factors. These include giving priority to financial analysis and selecting the lowest bidder, assigning projects to contractors who may lack the necessary financial and technical capabilities, choosing contractors with a history of struggling on previous projects, and lack of commitment from ministries towards the growth of the engineering sector, delayed allocation of financial rights to contractors by government entities, inadequate financial and technical capabilities of certain contractors [4] [31]. Other factors include delays in the owner paying contractors, design changes made during construction by the owner or consultant, partial payments made during the construction phase, labor and equipment shortages, errors in design and documentation, modifications to the material specifications, and a lack of quick decision-making [32] [33].…”

Construction Project Delay Factors of Public Universities in Ethiopia: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…"As in most developing countries, Ethiopia's construction industry has significantly contributed to the economy's growth through infrastructure development" [1]. It also enjoyed a large portion of the country's scarce funds.…”

Assessing the Causes of Time Overrun in Building and Road Construction Projects: The Case of Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

“…Construction delay has adverse effects on both the owner and contractor (either in the form of lost revenues or extra expenses), and it often raises the contentious issues of delay responsibility, which may result in dispute [14,15]. More than 82.3% of the road and building construction projects executed in Addis Ababa city fall behind the contractual schedule [16]. According to the study conducted by Solomon et al [17], the building and road construction projects executed in the city experience an average time delay of 175% and 110%, respectively.…”