Impact of errors in construction contract document in Ethiopian road authority projects (case study under centeral region)

Abstract

In Ethiopia specially, it is road transport, which allows the ways for the movement of peoples and agricultural goods from rural areas to urban areas. Road transport also facilitates a means for usage of land and natural resources, improved agricultural production and marketing, access to social services, and opportunities for sustainable growth (ERA, 2013). The Construction contract document error in construction project is one of the major factor in the construction industry. The final cost and project completion time can significantly differ from the initial estimated cost and time and also has significant impact because of this error. The research was conducted first by identification of common contract document error literature review and desk study on selected road projects and then from the findings questionnaire was developed and distributed to the client (ERA), contractors and consultants to assess their insight about the impacts of errors on contract documents. A descriptive and exploratory survey design was used in this research. This research is exploratory type because it concerned on gaining ideas and approaching about Impact of errors in contract document, and it is a descriptive type because it tried to describe types of contract document errors and their impacts in Ethiopian roads authority road projects. The research identified 38 types of contract document errors through literature review and desk study on selected four road projects constructed in central regions. A total of 44 valid Questionnaires were received back from contractors, consultants and client ERA to carried out the research. Based on the data gathered from the desk study and analysis of these four road projects contract document errors ranges from a minimum 11.11% of to a maximum of 121.05% of the original contract time for single projects and these analyzed projects have an average additional project time of 61.43% of the original completion date. Errors and omission in the bills of quantities, Errors in capital cost estimating, Incomplete drawing / details needed, Ambiguity or Vague statements, Missing or Incorrect notes on the drawings, CADD (Computer ) related problems, Dimensional errors, Errors in symbols and abbreviations and Coordination problem were the top ten most important contract document errors in central region road projects. Spearman rank correlation coefficient and Relative importance index analysis were used to test the agreement between different groups of respondents participated in questionnaires survey and to rank contract document errors based on importance.