Causes Of Delays In Universal Rural Road Access Program: A Case Of Kaffa Zone, Southwestern, Ethiopia

Abstract

Universal Rural Road Access Program (URRAP) was launched to connect all Kebele and Wereda considering the rural population's voice who demands and have a basic right to access transport, social and other services. The delay has limited the level of agricultural activities as most farmers found it difficult to transport their agricultural products to the urban areas and prevent rural population from access to services like social, health and education. The various researchers conducted a study on the causes of delay in Ethiopia and in the rest of the world and identified different number factors that cause a delay with their extent of contribution towards the construction projects. Many construction projects that have been carried outfaced the problem of non-completion during the specified time. URRAP road project in Kaffa Zone is one of the projects that have been subjected to delay repeatedly. The construction projects' delays have a significant financial and social impact on all parties involved in the projects, including the project's end-user. Therefore, this study was aimed to identify the causes of delay in URRAP road projects in the Kaffa Zone, southwestern Ethiopia. This was done through identifying and ranking the most critical factors on an individual and category basis. The study has adopted a comprehensive literature review to identify various factors from scholars' points of view that suit the study area's context. A quantitative survey research method through a structured questionnaire was administered on a sample. The data was obtained from focus group discussion, interview and questionnaire survey. A total of 42 questionnaires from clients, contractors, and consultants were collected, and a desk study of 4 completed, 7 suspended and 11 ongoing URRAP road construction projects were analyzed. The data were analyzed using MS EXCEL and SPSS software in which Relative Importance Index (RII), ranking, and simple percentages were computed and tested for the agreement among parties on the result through spearman’s correlation. Ranking of factors and categories was demonstrated according to their importance level on delay. From all parties combined result of RII, the following are some of the most critical factors causing a delay in URRAP projects in the study area late payment (RII=0.90), Weather conditions (RII=0.88), Delays in site mobilization (RII=0.73), Inconvenient site access (RII=0.72) Cash-flow problems (RII=0.70). The study concluded that the contractor-related category is the most prominent delay factor with a relative importance index value of (RII=0.61), followed by clients related (RII=0.59). Consultants related (RII=0.55) and external related delay causes exhibited the least aggregated relative importance index (RII=0.48).