Causes for the delays in the construction of the Harar water supply project

Contents

Introduction

General Objective

Specific Objective

Significance of the study

Scope of the study

Limitations of the study

Methodology

LITERATURE

Previous studies

Delays construction project

Causes of Delay construction project

Overview of Harar Water Supply construction project

Location of the Project and Duration

Location of the Project

Duration of the Project

Budget of the project

Objective of the project

The major component of the project

Purpose of the project

Project activity

Assessment of the project achievement

FINDING

The causes of delay construction Project

Implementation challenges

Project design complexity

The effect of delay in construction project

Action taken to solve the problem of delay in project

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

Recommendations

Reference

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Abstract

Delay is a situation when the constructor and the project owner jointly or individually contribute to the non completion of the project within the original or the stipulated or agreed contract period. Completion of the project within the original or the stipulated or agreed contract period. This study focuses on to assess and identify the causes for delay of Harar water supply construction Project. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the causes of delays in construction of water supply project in Harar city; To identify the effect of delays in water supply construction project and To examine the solution to solve the problem of delayed in construction project. The Methodology used in this study was A detailed literature review was carried out to identify the previous studies in the research area and found the major cause and effect of delays in project in other countries.And also review of full report of the Harar water supply construction project Then, interview survey carried out to identified the factors related to the study were done to develop to assess the cause and effect of delay Harar water supply construction project. The findings of the study have shown that Some of implementation challenges that cause to delay the contraction project are; Frequent design changes, lack of close supervision of the consultants and failure by the consultants to closely monitor the contracts, Slow physical progress as result of failure to timely commence and complete physical activities and utilize the allocated budget as planned, and Delays in finalizing the procurement process, mainly due to the lengthy procurement process.

Generally, there are many complicated issues from the inception of the project period until its completion. To mention some of them; The distances of the sources of water and the ownership of the land; undertaken by the MoWE’s procurement office which is highly burdened with other projects, Inconsistencies and a lot of modifications of the Project Engineering Designs, The existence of power interruptions in the project areas will be one of the major challenges for project sustainability. Heavy bureaucracies and understaffing of the project team (1 Project Manager, 1 Water Supply and 1 Accountant) And Lack of project specific Procurement specialist resulting in procurement activities being

Because of the above reason The Harar Water Supply and Sanitation Project did not adhere to the original closing date. It rather took above 36 months more to complete the project. Thus, the project faced delay in implementation and high cost overruns.

Introduction

Every construction project has a defined goal or objective, defined task to be performed and a defined time frame and every construction contract considers time as the essence of the project (Levy,1994). Delay is a situation when the constructor and the project owner jointly or individually contribute to the non completion of the project within the original or the stipulated or agreed contract period. Completing projects on time gives better results for both project owners and the contractors and reflects their efficiency. But the construction process is subject to many variables and unpredictable factors such as the performance of involved parties and contractual relations and it is rarely happened that a project is completed within the specified time (Assaf and Al-Hejji, 2006).

According to Al‐Moumani (2000) investigated the causes of delays on 130 public projects in Jordan, and the results indicated that the main causes of delay in construction of public projects relate to designers, user changes, weather, site conditions, late deliveries, and economic conditions.

When the project are delayed, they are either extended or accelerated and normally. This is associated with extra costs, which have to be incurred by either client or contractor (Sambasive and soon, 2007). Further, the handling of delay claims in construction is not an easy task when there are disagreements regarding the claim entitlement and it may give rise to dissatisfaction to the parties involved. Therefore, the main role of the project manager is to make sure that the projects are completed within the estimated time and budgeted cost.

Further, though there are enough tools and techniques available at present for construction project management, the researchers around the world have identified through their studies on different fields that most of the projects are getting delayed to some extent with or without cost overruns.

Harar Water Supply Project was planned to construct in order to supply water to harar city and the small town around the city including Haramaya University using both the capital fund and the foreign funds which have delayed to meet the time targets due to various causes. Due to the delay of completing these projects within agreed time targets there were severe problems in socio-economic development of the particular areas. In the view of the above, there is a need for having a better understanding of the causes and effects of delays in construction of Harar Water Supply and Sanitation Project.

General Objective

The General objective of the study wasto assess and identify the causes for delay of Hararwater supply constructionproject.

Specific Objective

- To identifythe causes of delays in construction ofwater supply project in Harar city;
- To identify the effect of delays in water supply construction project
- To examine the solution to solve the problem of delayed inconstruction project;

Significance of the study

This study tries to assess and identify the causes for delay of water supply construction project systems in Ethiopia in general and in Hararcity in particular. This study may have various contributions. It will used for individual and community to develop knowledge and create awareness on to the causes for delay of construction water supply project for other researcheras reference material for further studies.

Scope of the study

The study is limited to construction of water supply project in harar city,in which to assess and identify the causes for delayof water supply construction project.

Limitations of the study

Some limitations were encounter when conducting the study. The first problem will be lack of well organized secondary data. This includes the limitation of organized data/ document on time in the study area. However, the researcher will try to overcome these obstacles with great efforts.

The researcher will attempt to overcome this problem by arranging convenient time to get organized document and arranging time.

Methodology

A detailed literature review was carried out to identify the previous studies in the research area and found the major cause and effect of delays in project in other countries.And also review of full report of the Harar water supply construction project Then, interview survey carried out to identified the factors related to the study were done to develop to assess the cause and effect of delay Harar water supply construction project.

LITERATURE

Previous studies

According to Samarakoon (2009), has carried out a study to investigate the causes and effects of delays in construction of medium scale building construction projects. He has identified the major cause and effects and ranked them as per the importance considering both severity and frequency of occurrence. Also he recommends prescription to clients, consultant and contractors to mitigate delay in construction of medium scale building construction projects. Further Panditha (2001) carried out a field survey study on factor affecting delays in the building construction industry during the construction stage, study the importance of identified delay factors and delay groups, and make recommendation in order to minimize delay on pre construction delays in civil engineering projects.

Delays construction project

There are universal agreements that delay is a common phenomenon in the construction industry worldwide (Chan and Kumaraswamy, 1997). Normally most of the construction activities are carried out on project basis. A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by data, but can be by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value (PMBOK, 2004). Project delay is the time overrun either beyond completion date specified in a contract, or beyond the date that the parties agreed upon for delivery of a project (Assaf and Al-Hejji, 2006).

Causes of Delay construction project

It is essential to identify the most significant causes of delay in the construction projects in order to find ways to avoid or minimize their impact on construction projects (Faridi and El-Sayegh, 2006). The construction projects are different in size, project duration, contract type, etc. therefore, the identification of the causes of delay in construction projects is not an easy task and it requires some detailed studies. However, this the first step to approach the problem in a systematic manner. Several researchers have done studies on the project delays and they have selected various types of project such as; large construction projects, ground water projects, traditional contracts, etc for their studies. In general, most of the researchers have identified that all the causes identified are not of same importance and therefore require ranking of them according to the order of importance using some ranking system.

Some projects are susceptible to delay due to their nature. Specially water and sewerage project are this category of project and there are several influential factors such as; the projects are taken place in public roads and streets where special precaution are required, high uncertainty associated with such project because they require excavation and trenching works in varied soil and site condition, works are heavily dependent on equipment and machineries, which are susceptible to repair and need to get approvals from various authorities (Al-khalil and Al-Ghafly, 1999).

The main causes of delay and cost overrun in construction of ground water project in developing countries included; monthly payment difficulties from agencies; poor contract management; material procurement; poor technical performances; and escalation of material price (Frimpong et al., 2008).

On the other hand, according to Al-Momani, (2000), the main cause of delay in construction of public project in Jordan related to design, weather, site condition, late deliveries economic condition and increase in quality. One of the major similarities is the identification of design changes done by the users as a major cause of delay.

Although there are similarities in causes and effects of delay in construction project in across developing countries. Several other factors pertaining to local socio economic and cultural background also contribute to construction delay (Toora and Ogunlana, 2008). They have identified that the factor related to designers, contractors and consultant were among the top cause of delay.The significant factors causing delay of construction project are poor management and supervision, low speed of decision making involving all project team (Chan and Kumaraswamy).

Design changes inbuilding projects are common (Mohamad et al., 2012) where in manycircumstances, these changes lead to excessive claims and disputes (Howick et al., 2009). Therefore,complex and dynamic nature of construction project poses uncertainties and risks (Zhaoet al., 2010). Changes usually occur at any stage of a project due various causes from different sources and have considerable impacts (Motawa, Anumba, Lee, & Peña-Mora, 2007). Naoum (1994) emphasized that lack of timely and effective communication, lack of integration, uncertainty, a changing environment and increasing project complexity are the drivers of project change. Additionally, these changes in project can cause substantial adjustment to the contract duration, time, total direct and indirect cost or both (Ibbs, Lee, & Li, 1998).

The determinant factors for the sustainability of rural water supply systems are categorized in to two main categories. These are pre implementation factors and post implementation factors. Community participation, technology selection, site selection, demand responsiveness, construction quality, population and training are some of the pre-implementation factors. And post-implementation factors are technical support, community satisfaction, institutional and financial management, training and willingness to sustain the water project (Gebrehiwot, 2006).

Failures of water supply and sanitation systems describe situations where water supply and sanitation systems (also called WASHsystems) have been put in place (for example by the government or by non-government organizations (NGOs) but have failed to meet the expected outcomes. Often this is due to poor planning, insufficient stakeholder involvement at the various stages of the project and lack of maintenance. While Hygiene Behavior Change is important in achieving the health benefits of improved WASH systems, the achievement of sustainability of WASH infrastructure depends on creation of demand for sanitation services(Jenkins, M; Pfeiffer, V; Etienne, J 2009) sighted in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failures_of_water_supply_and_sanitation_systems#cite_note-Jenkinsm-1

Over the past three decades, experience has shown that water and sanitation activities are most effective and sustainable when they adopt a participatory approach that acts in response to genuine demand, builds capacity for operation and maintenance and sharing of costs, involve community members directly in all key decisions, develop a sense of communal ownership of the project, and uses appropriate technology that can be maintained at the village level. Also important are educational and participatory efforts to change behavioral practices (USAID, 2009).

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