Assessment of the Major Challenges on on-going Road Construction in Addis Ababa City

Abstract

Road construction project is the challenging process which needs huge manpower, machineries and technical as well as financial capacity. Construction projects in crowded urban road have faced different challenge to implement the road construction such as high-traffic volume, utility conflicts and relocations and complex right-of-way challenges of urban area construction. Therefore,the main objective of this study was to assess the major challenges of the selectedon ongoing road constructionprojects in the case of Addis Ababa city. Descriptive and explanatory study methods were carried for this research in order to achieve the objective of the study. Firstly, Guide lines (checklist) for the case study were prepared. It contains the basic information about the selected road construction projects such as: identify the major challenges that observed during the construction implementation process, determining the challenges that influence on road construction.Secondly, the research was conducted by identification of the major challenges through literature review, desk study and site observation on selected road projects. Based on this, the questionnaires were developed and distributed to respondents to collect data from the relevant population (i.e. Client, contractors andconsultants). Thirdly, evaluate the perception of different stakeholders on the issues of the challenges and ranking of the variables. Finally,evaluation of roads was done by checking compliance with the existing construction standards. Upon obtaining the desired data, checking and organization of data has been done. This was followed by thorough discussions in order to draw a conclusion and to forward recommendations based on the findings of the study. The distributed questioners to respondents were 100% returnedeven though, 73% of the questioners were only valid. From result that obtained, elevenmajor challenges (i.e.right of way problem, utility conflict, schedule constraints, variation order and poor project management, Scarcity of material and financial, high traffic problem, performance of stakeholders, poor public awareness, Design/poor planning and Environmental factors)were identified from the selected road projects by using checklist; however, the highest major challenge was right of way problem. On other hand, Time over run, Budget over run, Creating social problem, Reduce work motivation, Dispute between parties, Project termination and Leadership removal were identified as the most common and recurrent effects of the challenges on the on-going road construction projects. All most all the selected on-going road projects were not compliance with the standard. Moreover, it is recommended that client should be facilitating timely compensation for the property owners on the right of way of the road. Consultants should provide completed project design where variation order will be negligible. Contractors should follow the standards; Stakeholders need to build strong team to minimize lack of coordination between organizations.