“PERFORMANCE of LOCAL ROAD CONTRACTORS in ADDIS ABABA CITY”

Abstract

Construction performance is a common problem worldwide and ascertain as one of the basic reasons to create unsuccessful project. This study addressed the project performance issues of local road contractors in Addis Ababa to extract the important factors of performance and justify the level of relationship among the parties involved in road construction project. To achieve these objectives, first of all, related literatures were reviewed and 36 factors of performance were identified and interview two experts form each contractual party. Based on these factors, questionnaire was designed for asking relative importance of the factors based on Likert’s scale. To collect the data, questionnaire survey together with interview were used to collect data on time, cost overrun and quality problem. A total of 47 responses comprising 16 clients, 20 contractors and 11 consultants were collected and an interview of 6 experts from contractual parties involved in road construction projects in Addis Ababa. The research use both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method administered by the use of questionnaire while the qualitative method used by desk study and interview. The research used a purposive sampling technique; Used to evaluate project performance of local contractor in road construction project. To conduct the data collection this is mainly from desk study, questionnaires and interview. Relative importance index calculated to rank and categorize the factors to find most important factors of performance. The most important factors of performance identified by the respondents are Improper Planning and Scheduling, Right of Way problem, contractor’s cash flow problem during construction, Poor Material Management at Site, Low tender price, Poor project Management, Design errors and omissions, Poor estimation of the project time, Poor contract management and Inaccurate or Poor Estimation Cost etc. Furthermore, Spearman’s correlation shows strong positive correlation exists between owner and engineers, moderate positive correlation has been found between engineers and contractor, and between owner and contractor. Kruskal-Wallis’s test concluded that there are no significance differences among the respondent groups to select most important factors in regards of relative importance of but 95% confidence level achieved for only few factors. Therefore, it concluded that these findings will help focus on very significant factors to improve local road contractor project performance of the authority in the future. Finally, the study recommended similar studies for other projects such as develop strategies to improve the performance of local contractors on road projects, quantifying performance for specific factor and developing model of construction project performance loss in Addis Ababa. It is believed to contribute to the development of the road construction industry and the city, as well as the economic development of the country as a whole.