assessment of factor affecting the delay of road construction in Ethiopia; the case of Oromia road projects, Jimma zone

Abstract

Delays on the construction projects are the most common and frequent problem of the road construction. Many road construction projects have been undertaken throughout the Oromia Regional State as part of the government’s regional development plans. However, a few road building projects in ORA that were proposed and financed by the Federal government have not been finished by the initial deadlines and pre-agreed sums of money. The main objective of this study was to identify the factors affecting the delay of road construction in Ethiopia; the case of Oromia road projects, Jimma zone. The survey data was carried out through a questionnaire. The sample size of the study is 158 respondents, professionals from 3 target population client, contractor and consultant in Jimma Zone Road Authority. 47 potential delay causes and 7 effects were selected from the reviewed literature and the causes were divided in to 5 as client related factors, consultant related factors, contractor related factors, material and equipment related factors and environmental related factors. The researcher used stratified simple random sampling techniques in order to assess the cause and effect of delay on road construction the case of Oromia road projects, Jimma zone. These factors was ranked using the Likert scale-type questionnaires are used as a data rating scale tool to measure employees' perceptions of the variables. The study used a primary data source and the data was quantitatively analyzed using the Social Science Statistics Package (SPSS). Finally, both descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data. Among the descriptive statistics frequency distributions, means, standard deviation and relative importance index method was used. Among the inferential statistics Pearson correlation and multiple linear regressions analysis was used to identify the effect of project delay of road construction. The Pearson correlation result showed that there is strong relationship between the independent variables and project delay. Consultant related factors, contractors related factors, and environmental related factors were identified as a statistical significant effect on the delay of road construction projects, but client related factor and material and equipment related factors do not have a statistical significant effect on the delay of road construction projects at 5% level of significance. The researcher recommends that clients should have a good coordination with the contractor and being realistic so as to avoid delays.