Assessment of Constructability Practices in Public Building Construction Projects in The Case of Jimma Town

Abstract

Constructability is a project management tool that optimizes construction knowledge and experience at various stages of the project to meet the project's ultimate goals. It is also utilized to solve a variety of difficulties in the pre-construction phase, such as cost, time, and quality defects. However, there is still a large integration gap between design and Construction in practice. One of the key problems in the developing countries’ construction industry, mainly in Ethiopia, lack of integration of construction knowledge, resources, Technology, and experience during all stage of construction process. This study aims to investigate concepts and practice of constructability, effects of Constructability on performance of Public Building Construction Projects and identify the barriers and remedial measures of constructability on public building construction projects during pre-construction phase. So, the study was carried out by collecting input data from questionnaires and interview with available concerned bodies on the active public building construction project sites to meet the specific objectives. The research used both mixed approaches of Qualitative and quantitative types of research. The Target populations involved in this study were Client/Client’s representative, consultants and contractors. The overall populations were well-known, limited in number, and well-suited to the study objectives. As a result, the study's sample included the entire population that was targeted. To analysis the data and to Rank the factors Relative Importance Index (RII) was used. The data was presented and analyzed by using descriptive statistics like graphs, charts and tables by Microsoft excel sheet version 2013. This study identified practices and concepts, effects, barriers and remedial measurements of constructability in public building construction projects. As a result ‘Lack of awareness of Constructability, Unwillingness to invest extra money in early project stages, Separate design management and construction management operations’ are the most Client’s concerned barriers. Whereas ‘Lack of awareness of benefits and concepts of Constructability, Lack of mutual respect between designers and contractors’ are Designer barriers. In addition, ‘less early involvements of Contractors during designs, No knowledge of the latest construction methods and techniques are the most Contractor barriers. However, the remedial measures to the identified top barriers of Constructability are also recognized, based on this the most evaluated remedial measures are ‘the stakeholders must be aware of the benefits and concepts of Constructability, Allow enough time for constructability assessment before the project starts, Client must provide enough financial incentive for designer ,there must be mutual respect between designers and contractors, the parties must be aware of the latest construction methods and techniques’. In general, the practice and implementation of constructability, rather than following the conventional approach of construction management improves the project's performance