Abstract:
It has become well known that most road construction projects in Ethiopia and Addis Ababa
city are exposed to time and cost overrun. It becomes difficult to complete road projects in
the allocated cost, time and quality. These problems occur frequently during project life-time
leading to disputes and litigations. Therefore, it is essential to study and analyse causes of
construction delays. This research presents a list of construction delay causes retrieved from
literature. Therefore, this research was carried out to dig-out information on the factors that
cause delay and their frequency of occurrence on Asphalt road construction projects in Addis
Ababa City administration. Quantitative data was collected from clients, consultants and
contractors using questionnaires and then the data obtained were analyzed using the Relative
Importance Index (RII). The survey analysis results obtained identified ten major causes of
delays. And the causes for delay was then ranked using the RII method. Based on the RII
ranking it was identified that contractors financial difficulties, delay in preparation and
approval, lack of timely decision, design change, materials shortage in the local market were
the top five delay causing factors as it was identified by the respondents. And based on the
results few recommendations were drawn as follows: the client is mostly the responsible
party for financing of the project. And should be able to fulfill contractual obligations. More
attention should be given during the design phase by the consultant to minimize the
probability of change orders. In addition to that, contractors should plan their schedule and
resource properly.
