Project Delivery Delay: The Nigeria Experience

IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE) e-ISSN: 2278-1684,p-ISSN: 2320-334X, Volume 13, Issue 5 Ver. V (Sep. - Oct. 2016), PP 84-87 www.iosrjournals.org Project Delivery Delay: The Nigeria Experience Adebakin Idowu H.1* and Ipaye Tajudeen O.2 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Nigeria 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Lagos State Polytechnic, Lagos, Nigeria Abstract: Project delivery delay, with its negative ripple effects, is one of the major problems face in the construction industry of developing countries. Delays can be minimized only when their causes are recognized. The main objective of this study is to identify the major causes of delays in construction projects in the Nigeria Construction Industry through a survey. The primary aim is to identify the perceptions of the different parties regarding causes of delays. The literature related the field of causes and effects of delay in construction projects has been reviewed. A questionnaire survey was conducted to solicit the causes of delay from clients, consultants and contractors’ viewpoint. This survey was conducted among 10 owners/developers, 40 contractors and 50 consultants. This study identified 41 important causes of delay. It was found the predominant causes of delay are decision during development stage or changes in drawing, drawing approval, delayed payment, market conditions, financial process difficulties or money disbursement, subsurface soil condition, excessive changes in quantities & specifications, design errors or incomplete supply of drawings. The paper forecasts some future trends and suggests certain areas in which future research on construction projects could focus on, the findings of construction management problems are common to developing countries. Keywords: Contractor, Construction, Delays, Nigeria, Projects I. Introduction Construction delay is considered one of the most frequent problems in the construction industry and delays have an adverse impact on project success in terms of time, cost, quality and safety [1]. According to AlMomani, delay is a situation when the contractor and the project owner jointly or severally contribute to the noncompletion of the project within the original or the stipulated or agreed contract period [2]. Delays can be minimized only when their causes are recognized. Keeping construction projects within approximate costs and schedules requires sound strategies, good practices, and careful judgment. Assaf et al reported that 76% of the contractors they surveyed have indicated that average of time overrun is between 10% and 30% of original duration, while about 56% of the consultants specified the same percentage [3]. Time and cost overruns occur in most construction projects, although, the magnitude of these delays and cost overruns varies considerably from project to project [4]. In this survey, Lagos is used as a microscopic because that’s the nerve-centres of the Nigerian economy and about 60% of commercial construction projects in Nigeria is domicile in Lagos. This survey was conducted among 10 owners/developers, 40 contractors and 50 consultants. Thereafter, the analysis the data was done using statistical procedures Numerous researchers has identified the causes of delay in construction projects to determine the causes, level of time extension needed for public projects and aid requirement by construction managers in establishing adequate evaluation prior to the contract award using quantitative data [5]. According to Assaf et al [3] and Ogunlana et al [6] delays can lead to many negative effects such as time and cost overrun. Ogunlana et al [6] also identified the problem of shortage or inadequacies in industry infrastructures as the most important factor affecting performance of a building construction followed by problems of incompetent consultants/contractors as major challenges in Thailand. II. Methodology Apart from comprehensive literature review, questionnaire survey was used to solicit the causes of delay from clients, consultants and contractors’ viewpoint. The respondents were asked to identify their response category on a 5 liker scale. Summary of causes of delay identified are shown below. Flood Fire Wind Damage Design Development Design errors or incomplete supply of drawings Decision during development stage or changes in drawing DOI: 10.9790/1684-1305058487 www.iosrjournals.org 84 | Page Project Delivery Delay: The Nigeria Experience Excessive changes in quantities & Changes in Specifications Drawings Approval Incomplete documents Inspections(from local authority, consultant or client) Subsurface Soil Conditions Material/Fabrication Delays Material Procurement Lack of Qualified Craftsmen Poor Subcontractor Performance Defective Work or construction mistakes Different Site Conditions Labour Injuries Failure or damage to Structure Poor Supervision Equipment non availability Financial Process difficulties or money disbursement Delayed Payments Economic Problems Labour Dispute and Strike Inadequate Planning Inadequate work Scheduling Contract Modifications Underestimation of Productivity Staffing Problems Lack of coordination on-site Work Scheduling Mismanagement Transportation Delays Project Suspensions Inadequate Review of drawing Lack of High-Technology Poor Managerial Skills Building Permits Approval Process Changes in Laws and Regulations Safety Rules Occupational safety and health standard (OSHA) Regulations Data for the study were processed and analysed with the aid of the Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS). Data measured on nominal scale were analysed using descriptive statistics such as mode, frequency distribution and percentages. Mean scores and standard deviations, as well as inferential statistics such as Spearman correlation were used to analyse data measured on ordinal scale. The levels of importance of identified factors were determined by the magnitude of their mean scores, with the greatest mean representing the most important factor. Other parametric statistics such as Compare Means by One Sampling T-Test and tstatistics were also used to further test the strength of the results obtained from other statistical tests III. Results and Discussion The major findings of this study include: 1. Decision during development stage or changes in drawing is the most important factor considered by the professionals of the construction industry as the major causes of delay to projects in the Nigerian construction industry as shown in table 1. Other important factors that affect or cause delay to project in the Nigerian construction industry include the drawing approval, delayed payment, financial processes difficulties or money disbursement. Occupational safety and health standard (OSHA) regulations, labour injury, flood, fire and wind damage are not considered important by the professionals of the construction industry as a major cause of delay. 2. There is a low association between the factors affecting or causing delay to projects in the Nigerian industry. 3. The relationship considerations between the causes of delay are not significant determinants of delay to projects in the Nigerian construction industry. 4. The high rate of respondents having a level of experience greater than six (6) years in their respective field of study makes it clear that the research is reasonably proofed that the major causes was due to their high level of experience. 5. The pie chart shows the relationship between the first four causes and others, in which the percentage of each of the first four cause to others are as shown in fig. 1 and the percentages are, decision during development stage & changes in drawings (21%), drawing approval (21%), delayed payment (20%),financial process difficulty (19%),others which are Occupational safety and health standard (OSHA) regulations, labour injury, flood, fire and wind damage (19%) DOI: 10.9790/1684-1305058487 www.iosrjournals.org 85 | Page Project Delivery Delay: The Nigeria Experience Table 1: Factors Affecting the Delivery of Construction Projects in Nigeria Causes of Delays Decision during development stage or changes in working drawings drawings approval delayed payment financial process difficulties or money disbursement subsurface soil conditions excessive changes in quantities & changes in specification design errors or incomplete supply of drawings building permits approval process defective work or construction mistakes incomplete documents project suspension inadequate planning poor subcontractor performance contract modification Inadequate review of drawing labour dispute and strike economic problem work scheduling mismanagement inadequate work scheduling poor supervision lack of high technology poor managerial skills design development material procurement different site condition lack of coordination on site lack of qualified craftsmen changes in laws and regulations equipment non availability material/fabrication delays staffing problem failure or damage to structure safety rules transportation delays inspections (from local authority, consultant or client) underestimation of productivity occupational safety and health standard(OSHA)regulations labour injury Flood Fire wind damage DOI: 10.9790/1684-1305058487 N 61 Min. 1.00 Max. 5.00 Mean 3.9180 Std. Deviation 1.05349 Rank 1 61 61 60 2.00 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 3.8197 3.6885 3.4500 1.07251 1.07302 1.21327 2 3 4 61 61 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 3.4426 3.4262 1.11840 .97398 5 6 61 1.00 5.00 3.4262 1.05608 7 61 1.00 5.00 3.4262 1.11742 8 61 1.00 5.00 3.4098 1.21624 9 61 61 61 61 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 3.4098 3.3934 3.3770 3.3607 .97257 1.30740 1.28016 1.15517 10 11 12 13 60 61 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 3.3000 3.2951 1.21153 1.00572 14 15 61 60 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 3.2459 3.2333 1.34976 1.15519 16 17 61 1.00 5.00 3.1803 1.16201 18 61 1.00 5.00 3.1803 1.25841 19 61 61 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 3.1639 3.1639 1.26728 1.12813 20 21 60 61 61 61 61 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 3.1333 3.1311 3.1148 3.0984 3.0820 1.21386 1.07200 1.09694 1.17905 1.18737 22 23 24 25 26 61 1.00 5.00 3.0656 1.36466 27 61 61 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 3.0328 3.0164 1.26448 1.31011 28 29 61 60 61 1.00 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 2.9672 2.9333 2.9180 1.27759 1.05552 1.30761 30 31 32 61 61 61 1.00 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 2.9016 2.8852 2.8525 1.28718 1.33039 1.13778 33 34 35 60 1.00 5.00 2.8500 1.14721 36 61 1.00 5.00 2.7541 1.19242 37 61 61 61 61 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 2.5738 2.2623 1.9672 1.8361 1.20359 1.27674 1.13970 1.18575 38 39 40 41 www.iosrjournals.org 86 | Page Project Delivery Delay: The Nigeria Experience Figure 1: Summary of Causes of Delays in Project Delivery This study identifies decision during development stage or changes in working drawings as the most important factor considered by the professionals in the Nigerian construction industry. This is in line with the discoveries by Asaaf et al [3] and Chan and Kumaraswamy [7, 8]. Drawing approval as well as delayed payments or financial processes difficulties also emerge in this study as important factors that causes project delivery delays in Nigeria. This is similar to the outcome of researches carried out by Frimpong et al [9] and Toufic and Wissam [10]. IV. Conclusion This survey has identifies changes in working drawings, longer time in drawing approval and delayed payments by client to consultants/contractor as major causes of delay in project delivery in Nigeria. For improved project delivery in Nigeria, it is therefore very important that experience construction professionals are involves right from the conceptual stage of any major project to forestall any need for major alterations on the working drawing after commencement of construction works. 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Mezher and Wissam Tawil, Causes of Delays in the Construction Industry in Lebanon, Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 5(3), 1998, 252-260. DOI: 10.9790/1684-1305058487 www.iosrjournals.org 87 | Page