Exploring critical road project delay factors in Ghana

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causes of road construction delays in Ghana and identify appropriate mitigation measures.

Design/methodology/approach
The initial approach involved an empirical analysis of 48 road projects to quantify the extent of time. This was followed by a survey of the perception of road agency and donor partner officials of the critical causes of road project delays.

Findings
About 70 per cent of road projects experience delays and 52 per cent experience cost overruns. The average time overrun and cost overruns of road projects in Ghana was 17 months and US$1.15m (or 22.5 per cent), respectively. The five most critical causes of road construction delays were delay in finance and payment of completed work by owner (client-related); inadequate contractor experience (contractor-related); changes in scope by the owner during construction (client-related); delay to furnish and deliver the site to the contractor (client-related); and inflexible funding allocation for project items (donor-related).

Research limitations/implications
The most critical constraint of this study is the fact that findings are based on only the views of industry professional experts. It may be assumed that despite using broadly used terminology to refer to the causes of project delays, the interpretations by respondents may have differed from those intended. Further research could look at the correlation between time overrun and cost overrun using principle component analysis.

Practical implications
The identified delay factors are not unique to the road sector. From both academic and practical perspectives, the results emphasizes on the need for a holistic and integrated risk management model for the entire construction industry in Ghana.

Originality/value
The paper examined the causes of road project delays in the Ghanaian context and recommended remedial measures.

Full text

Journal of Facilities Management
Exploring critical road project delay factors in Ghana
Charles Teye Amoatey, Alfred Nii Okanta Ankrah,
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Charles Teye Amoatey, Alfred Nii Okanta Ankrah, (2017) "Exploring critical road project delay factors
in Ghana", Journal of Facilities Management, Vol. 15 Issue: 2, pp.110-127, https://doi.org/10.1108/
JFM-09-2016-0036
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Exploring critical road project
delay factors in Ghana
Charles Teye Amoatey and Alfred Nii Okanta Ankrah
Business School, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration,
Achimota, Ghana
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causes of road construction delays in Ghana and
identify appropriate mitigation measures.
Design/methodology/approach –The initial approach involved an empirical analysis of 48 road
projects to quantify the extent of time. This was followed by a survey of the perception of road agency and
donor partner ofcials of the critical causes of road project delays.
Findings –About 70 per cent of road projects experience delays and 52 per cent experience cost overruns.
The average time overrun and cost overruns of road projects in Ghana was 17 months and US$1.15m (or 22.5
per cent), respectively. The ve most critical causes of road construction delays were delay in nance and
payment of completed work by owner (client-related); inadequate contractor experience (contractor-related);
changes in scope by the owner during construction (client-related); delay to furnish and deliver the site to the
contractor (client-related); and inexible funding allocation for project items (donor-related).
Research limitations/implications –The most critical constraint of this study is the fact that ndings
are based on only the views of industry professional experts. It may be assumed that despite using broadly
used terminology to refer to the causes of project delays, the interpretations by respondents may have differed
from those intended. Further research could look at the correlation between time overrun and cost overrun
using principle component analysis.
Practical implications –The identied delay factors are not unique to the road sector. From both
academic and practical perspectives, the results emphasizes on the need for a holistic and integrated risk
management model for the entire construction industry in Ghana.
Originality/value –The paper examined the causes of road project delays in the Ghanaian context and
recommended remedial measures.
Keywords Ghana, Construction, Causes of delays, Cost overruns, Road, Time overruns
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Road transport continues to play an important role in the movement of passengers and
freight. This is a necessary requirement for poverty alleviation and socio-economic
development in developing countries. Roads serve as the circulation system in the promotion
of commerce, communication and socio-economic development. The provision of road
infrastructure gives both the rural and urban poor access to health, education, employment
and other needed social services. This means that without efcient transport infrastructure
in place, economic and social development would be severely hindered. Amoatey (2007)
conrmed that, despite the importance of roads in the promotion of overall economic
development and improvement in living conditions, efciency of road transport systems in
many developing countries (such as Ghana) is often constrained by high vehicle operation
and maintenance costs due to poor road conditions.
Despite the surge of investment in the road sector, the problem of road construction
delays has been a major constraint to road network development in Ghana. The objective of
the government, through the Ministry of Roads and Highways, is to serve the public by
providing timely construction of road with the least disruption to motorists and other road
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1472-5967.htm
JFM
15,2
110
Received 15 September 2016
Revised 8 November 2016
Accepted 19 November 2016
Journal of Facilities Management
Vol. 15 No. 2, 2017
pp. 110-127
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1472-5967
DOI 10.1108/JFM-09-2016-0036
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users. Delays during road construction lead to cost overruns and inconveniences to road
users in the form of increased travel time.
Though the issue of road construction delays has been a priority for government, the
situation has not improved over the years. Gomelesio (2013) postulated that delays in
projects of the Ghanaian construction industry has become a major problem which is often
discussed because of its economic and social impact.
Sambasivan and Soon (2007) posited that delays are costly to a project, especially the time
lapse, over expenditure, litigation, disputes and abandoned projects, while Clough (1986)
indicated that projects which delay beyond the contract period go a long way to bring
hardship, loss of revenue, bad reputation and increase in avoidable cost. Road project delays
negatively affect all parties of road construction projects (i.e. clients, consultants,
constructors and development partners who fund most reconstruction projects in Ghana).
The above illustrated observations call for urgent and more in-depth understanding of the
root causes of road project delays in Ghana. For instance, it is very important to address the
following issues: What is the extent of road construction project time and cost overrun in
Ghana? What are the major road project delay factors as ranked by the key road project
parties (including development partners)? Are these delay factors unique to the road sector or
similar to what pertains in the entire construction industry? What measures can be adopted
to mitigate the effects of these delay factors?
The main purpose of this study therefore is to assess the underlining causes of delays in
road projects from the point of view of four project parties, namely, government, contractors,
consultants and development partners. The specic objectives of the study are:
• to estimate the extent of time and cost overrun from empirical data sources (based of
review of historical data on road contracts);
• to identify and rank the major delay factors associated with road projects in Ghana; and
• to identify strategies used by project stakeholders in mitigating the effects of these delay
factors.
Though there is proliferation of studies on the causes of construction delays in developing
countries, most have focused on the entire construction sector or the building sub-sector. There is
dearth of research work which specically investigates the causes of road project delays. This
paper makes an important contribution to the body of knowledge of road construction delay
factors and highlights sustainable approaches to mitigating these delay factors.
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. Section 2 analyses empirical data on past
road projects and discusses previous related studies on risk factors in the road sector. This is
followed by a presentation of the methodology of the study in Section 3. Section 4 discusses the
key ndings from the study. Section 5 identies measures for minimising the major road
construction delay factors. Finally, the research conclusions are presented in Section 6.
2. Literature review
2.1 Importance of timely road maintenance
Roads are valuable national assets which must be preserved. According to Heggie (2004),
developed countries spend about 1.2-2.5 per cent of their gross domestic product on roads.
The need for sustained road maintenance is of primary importance, especially with respect to
road safety and economic development. The timing of the execution of maintenance
activities is particularly important, as it can impact signicantly the overall network
life-cycle costs. A European Commission (2006) review on the transport sector shows that
deferred maintenance had resulted in the loss of one-third of the road infrastructure
investments in sub-Saharan Africa. Another research ndings by the South African National
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Road Agency (NRA, 2005) on the importance of timely execution of maintenance works also
conrms that delays in road project implementation have contributed to a disproportionately
high road construction and maintenance costs.
Angelo and Reina (2002) posited that the problem of cost overruns, resulting from delays
in construction, is critical and requires thorough investigation to understand the underlining
causes. They also pointed out that time overruns are a major problem in both developing and
developed countries, stating that the trend is more severe in developing countries where
these overruns sometimes exceed 100 per cent of the anticipated duration of the project.
In Ghana, a government-funded 11-km six-lane asphaltic concrete dual carriageway road,
which started in August 2007 at an initial estimated cost of GH¢73 million, increased to
GH¢100 because of delays in commencing the project.
2.2 Theoretical concepts
Several studies have indicated that delay occurs in every construction project and the
signicance of this delay varies considerably from project to project and have suggested that
delay is the most common, complex and universal phenomenon in construction. Many
researchers have tried to dene these construction delays. Bramble and Callahan (1987)
dened construction delays as the time during which some part of the construction project
has been extended or not performed because of unforeseen circumstances. Again, O’Brien
(1976) opined that construction delay means a time overrun either beyond the contract date
or beyond the date that the parties have agreed upon for the delivery of the project. Zack
(2003) also dened construction delay as an act or event which extends the required time to
perform or complete work of the contract manifests itself as additional days of work. Sanders
and Eagles (2001) also contributed to the denition of delays by stating that it is an event that
causes extended time to complete all or part of a project. What could be distilled from the
above denitions is that delays extend the completion time of a project beyond the specied
time in the contract document because of unforeseen circumstances, hence causing time and
cost overruns for the completion of the project.
2.3 Classication of delays in construction
Ahmed et al. (2003) classied the causes of delays into internal and external factors. Internal
causes arise from the parties to the contract (e.g. contractor, client and consultant). External
causes, on the other hand, arise from events beyond the control of the parties. Bolton (1990)
classies delays into excusable and inexcusable delays. He posited that excusable delays are
not the fault or within the control of the contractor. They may be further classied as
compensable or non-compensable delays. Non-excusable delays are delays caused solely by
the contractor. The contractor is generally not entitled to relief and must either make up the
lost time through compensation to the owner. This compensation may come about through
either liquidated damages or actual damages, provided there is no liquidated damages clause
in the contact. The literature also distinguished between concurrent and non-concurrent
delays. Arditi and Robinson (1995) and Ostrowski and Midgette (2006) underscored that
concurrent delay occurs when more than one type of delay happens at the same time and
both, either together or independently, impact the project’s critical path. Concurrent delay
results when the work in the second activity and independent activities are voluntarily
delayed by factors independent of any problems arising from the delay in another activity.
According to Rawlings (2003), concurrent delays could be caused by the delaying effects of
events that were either excusable (i.e. the events for which the employer takes the risk of time
and for which extensions of time should be granted to the contractor) or culpable (i.e. events
for which the contractor takes the risk of time). Non-concurrent delays do not overlap.
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2.4 Previous works on causes of construction delays
Singh (2010) investigated the causes of delays and cost overruns in infrastructure projects and
found that delays are one of the crucial causes behind project cost overruns. He observed that
bigger projects experienced much higher cost overruns compared to smaller ones. Compared to
other sectors, projects in road, railways and urban-development sectors, as well as those in civil
aviation, shipping and ports and in power sectors, have experienced much longer delays.
Chan and Kumaraswamy (1997) investigated the causes of time overrun in Hong Kong
construction projects and found out that poor site management and supervision, unforeseen
ground conditions, low speed of decision-making involving all project teams, client-initiated
variations and necessary variations of works are the ve principal causes of delays. They
concluded that the relationship between success on site and strong management teams
underlines the need for effective site management and supervision by contractors and
consultants. Noulmanee et al. (1999) investigated causes of delays in highway construction in
Thailand and concluded that delays can be caused by all parties involved in projects;
however, the main causes come from inadequacy of sub-contractors, organisations that lack
sufcient resources, incomplete and unclear drawings and deciencies between consultants
and contractors. The study suggested that delay can be minimised by discussions that lead
to understanding their underlining causes.
Bordoli and Baldwin (1998) examined the causes of delays in building projects in the USA.
Weather, labour supply and sub-contractors were found to be the major causes of delays.
According to Kaming et al. (1997), design changes, poor labour productivity and
inadequate planning and resources are responsible for construction delays in Indonesia. A
research by Al-Khal and Al-Ghary (1999) revealed that the major causes of delay in the
construction industry in Saudi Arabia are contractor’s performance, owner’s administration,
early planning and design, government regulation, site and environment conditions and site
supervision. In Nigeria, Manseld et al. (1994) identied nancing and payment for
completed works, poor contract management, changes in site conditions, inaccurate
estimation and shortages of materials as the most important items causing delays.
Al-Momani (2000) investigated causes of delay in 130 construction projects in Jordan and
concluded that the main causes of delays were designer or user changes, weather, site
conditions, late deliveries, economic conditions and increases in quantities. Ubaid (1991)
discussed the performance of contractors as the major cause of delay. Also, 13 major
measures were considered. These measures are related to contractor resources and
capabilities. The study concluded that lack of experience, poor estimation practices, bad
decisions in regulating company’s policy and national slump in the economy are major
factors causing delays. Similarly, Mezher and Tawil (1998) conducted a survey of the causes
of delays in the construction industry in Lebanon from the viewpoint of owners, contractors
and architectural/engineering rms. They found that owners had more concerns with
regards to nancial issues; contractors regarded contractual relationship as most important,
while consultants considered project management issues to be the most important causes of
delays. Kaliba et al. (2009) also identied the major causes of time overrun in road
construction projects in Zambia to be delayed payments, nancial deciencies on the part of
the client or the contractor, contract modications, economic problems, material
procurement problems, changes in design drawings, stafng problems, unavailability of
equipment, poor supervision, construction mistakes, poor coordination on site, changes in
specications, labour disputes and strikes.
In Ghana, no previous study on the causes of road project delays was found. Nevertheless,
Frimpong et al. (2003) had investigated the signicant factors contributing to delay and cost
overruns in groundwater construction projects and identied monthly payment difculties from
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agencies, poor contractor management, material procurement, poor technical performances and
escalation of material prices as the major causes of construction delays. In another similar
Ghanaian case, Fugar and Agyakwah-Baah (2010) concluded that nine major factors that cause
time overrun in building construction projects are inadequate nancial resources, materials
shortage on site, poor scheduling and controlling, poor contractual relationship, changes in
designs, equipment unavailability, environmental issues, government and labour challenges.
Amoatey et al. (2015) identied factors that contribute to state housing project time overrun in
Ghana as delays in payment to contractors/suppliers, inadequate funds from sponsors/clients,
variation orders and poor nancial/capital market. The effects of these time overruns are cost
overrun, litigation, pre-mature termination of projects by clients and arbitration actions. In the
construction industry of Saudi Arabia, Assaf and Al-Hejji (2006) estimate that about 70 per cent
of large construction projects experienced time overruns.
On the effect of time overrun on labour force, Ameh and Odusami (2002) observed a
signicant negative relationship between time overrun and productivity. More recently, Aziz
and Abdel-Hakam (2016) used a case study approach for exploring delay causes of road
construction projects in Egypt. They observed a signicant correlation of causes and groups
between contractors and site/design engineers and between consultants and site design
engineers and a somewhat low correlation between contractors and consultants. The
ndings informed the development of a model for predicting actual road construction project
duration. Sambasivan and Soon (2007) also posited that that there is a correlation between
cost overrun and time overrun (showing a correlation coefcient ⫽0.487, signicant at 0.01
level of signicance). Other signicant contribution to the study of road construction delays
and their effects on cost overruns are studies by Mahamid and Bruland (2012),Mahamid et al.
(2012),Gündüz et al. (2015), and Aziz and Abdel-Hakam (2016).
As can be observed from the literature review above, while several studies have
investigated the causes and effects of delays in the construction sector, very few have
focused on the road construction sector. We further observe that road construction delays are
a common phenomenon in civil engineering projects in Ghana and globally. In Ghana, all
studies (Frimpong et al., 2003;Amoatey et al., 2015;Fugar and Agyakwah-Baah, 2010) have
focussed on the general construction sector. This paper makes two important contributions
to the existing literature on road construction delay factors.
First, the paper’s unique contribution relates to the investigation of specic factors which lead
to road construction delays. There is the need for sector-specic factors to be introduced into
management of road construction delays. The identication of these road sector-specic delay
factors would ensure that appropriate mitigation measures are identied and used to improve road
project effectiveness and success. According to Esteves (2004), each sector has its unique risk factors.
As a result, a suitable risk management model of a sector must recognise these unique factors.
Second, we observed that most of the studies reviewed categorised construction delay factors
into three main groupings, namely, client-related, contractor-related and consultant-related.
Views of respondents representing these groups were surveyed in analysing the delay factors. In
Ghana, as in most other developing countries, development partners (or donors) play a crucial role
in funding road construction and maintenance. It is therefore important to explore the causes of
project delays from the perspective of development partners. This study therefore included
donor-related road construction delay factors and solicited the views of representatives of donor
organisations in ranking the identied delay factors.
3. Methodology
The following research methodology was used in analysing road construction delays in
Ghana.
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3.1 Research design and sampling
The study was fact-nding in nature, which used both empirical and survey approach for
data gathering to obtain the needed information for the study. A purposive sampling
approach was used in determining the sample for the study. The respondents were mainly
engineers and senior management of the three road agencies, namely, Department of Feeder
Road, Department of Urban Roads and the Ghana Highway Authority. Programme
managers of Development Partner institutions supporting road projects in Ghana were also
surveyed. In all, 160 questionnaires were administered purposively with 40 going to each of
the groups. A total of 123 completed questionnaires were returned. The response rate was 77
per cent, which according to Akintoye (2000) and Dulami et al. (2003) is satisfactory
according to the norm responsive rate in the construction industry.
3.2 Questionnaire structure
The survey questionnaire consisted of three main parts. The rst part elicited from
respondents standard demographic or background information. The respondents were
categorised as project manager, architect, structural engineer, quantity surveyor,
mechanical engineer, contractor, site manager and clerk of works. The second part requested
for detailed contract information on road projects executed between 2002 and 2013 at the
three road agencies. The information, organised in a tabular format, included contract start
date (planned/actual), contract completion date (planned/actual) and initial and actual
contract costs. This information was then used in calculating the time and cost overrun of
each project. The contract data were provided through interviews with selected project
managers and administrators at the road agencies surveyed. The nal part of the
questionnaire asked respondents to rate the causes of road construction delay factors which
have been collated from initial interviews with road agency ofcials. These factors were
classied into client-related, consultant-related, contractor-related and donor-related.
3.3 Data analysis
A ve-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important) was
adopted to capture the importance of the delays factor. The relative importance index (RII)
for each factor on delay cause and effect was calculated using the frequency data for each
response category generated from Microsoft Excel in a similar manner as El-Razek et al.
(2008) and Kometa et al. (1994). The RIIs are calculated as follows:
R⫽
兺W
A⫻N
where Wis the weighting given to each factor by the respondents (ranging from 1 to 5), Ais
the highest weight (i.e. 5 in this case) and Nis the total number of respondents (i.e. 160).
Finally, the results of the survey were analysed to examine possible differences in the
perceptions of the respondent sub-groups regarding the importance of the road project delay factors.
4. Results
4.1 Empirical data on delays in road project in Ghana
This session presents an empirical analysis of data on road construction project to assess the
extent of time and cost overrun in the sector.
Data on 48 road projects started and completed in the country from 2002 to 2013 were
collected from the road agencies and analysed as shown in Table AII. The projects mainly
involved rehabilitation and reconstruction contracts. Analysis of the data shows that the
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average time overrun of road projects in the country is 17 months (with the maximum being
78 months). The corresponding average cost overrun for these projects is US$1.15m (or 22.5
per cent). The maximum cost overrun is US$32.7m (or 281 per cent). Overall, 33 out of 48
projects (representing 69 per cent) experienced time overrun, while 25 out of 48 projects
(representing 52 per cent) experienced cost overruns.
Initial interviews with road agency ofcials identied the following as some causes of
road project delays: changes in scope and design of the project, unrealistic contract duration,
inability of government to pay contractors on time, site management and supervision,
rework due to errors during construction, poor planning, additional works and inexperience
contractors. These road construction delay factors were further ranked based on assessment
of their degree of occurrence.
4.2 Description of survey respondents
As shown in Table I below, a breakdown of the respondents is as follows: 32.5 per cent were
clients, 22.8 per cent were consultants, 28.4 per cent were contractors and 16.3 per cent were
donors. The client group which is the largest is professional staff of the three road agencies.
Again, it was observed that respondents were very familiar with the technical and nancial
issues relating to road project management at both operational and strategic levels. Most
respondents had more than ve years of experience working in the road sector, signifying
high knowledge of issues in the sector. Conrming the capital-intensive nature of the sector,
nearly 80 per cent of respondents have worked on projects with contract sum of over
Gh¢5,000,000 (US$1,650,000) (Table I).
4.3 Analysis of road project delay causes
This section examines the perceptions of project parties (clients, contractors, consultants and
donors) on the 23 listed causes of road projects delay in Ghana. The RII was calculated for
each project delay cause and ranked as shown in Table AI. Based on the ranking of each
delay cause, the most critical road construction delay factors were identied as follows:
• delay in nance and payment of completed work by owner (client-related);
• inadequate contractor experience (contractor-related);
• changes in scope by the owner during construction (client-related);
• delay to furnish and deliver the site to the contractor (client-related);
• inexible funding allocation for project items (donor-related);
• difculties in nancing project by contractor (contractor-related);
• delay in site mobilisation (contractor-related);
• delay in the preparation of shop drawings (contractor-related);
• slow decision-making (client-related); and
• rework due to errors during construction (contractor-related).
The sub-sections that follow discuss the top ve causes of delays from the study and suggest
measures for mitigating their effects on road project success.
4.3.1 Delay in payment of completed work by owner (government). Delay in payment is
ranked as the most critical delay factor by all four project parties. This has to do with
government’s delay in honouring payments for certicates that have been presented by the
contractor for work done. Local contractors often have to borrow at high cost of capital to
pre-nance projects. Delay in payments means that contractors would have to prioritise
payment to nancial institutions to procurement of materials and logistics to complete the
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work. Such delays impact the contractor’s overhead costs and costs associated with
mobilisation and demobilisation during the period when work is suspended. We observed
that the problem of delay in payment is common with government-funded projects and
projects executed by local contractors. Unlike foreign contractors, local contractors often
lack the capacity to take the government on legally and demand payment and other interest
charges for the delay. The issue of delay in payment is conrmed by several studies
(Addo-Abedi, 1999;Frimpong et al., 2003;Agyakwa-Baah, 2007;Adams, 2008) that
investigated causes of construction delays in developing countries. For example, Frimpong
et al. (2003) ranked “monthly payment difculties”, “contractors nancial difculties” and
“cashow during construction” as rst, third and fth causes of construction delays in
Ghana, respectively.
To mitigate this delay factor, clients should ensure proper planning, costing and
budgeting for road works during the pre-contract period. This will ensure that adequate
funds are available to complete the project and help avoid recurrent stoppage of works as a
result of payment delays. As observed by Addo-Abedi (1999 (cited in Tuuli et al., 2007), there
is no form of compensation to contractors when government delays in making payment for
work done. The country’s legal framework must be strengthened to ensure that contractors
are adequately compensated for delays in payment.
4.3.2 Inadequate contractor experience. “Inadequate contractor experience” was ranked
as the second most important cause of road construction delays. With a p-value of 0.795,
we observed no signicant differences in the views of all four project parties. Apart from
Table I.
Demographic
characteristics of
respondents
Demographic characteristics Frequency (%)
Gender
Male 79 64.2
Female 44 35.8
Total 123 100.0
Employing party
Consultants 28 22.8
Clients 40 32.5
Contractors 35 28.4
Donors 20 16.3
Total 123 100.0
Level of education
Diploma/HND 32 26.0
Degree 71 57.7
Post-graduate degree 20 16.3
Total 123 100.0
Years of experience in the road sector
Less than 5 years 17 12.0
6-10 years 11 53.0
More than 10 years 7 35.0
Total 81 100
Average contract sum
Less than Gh¢5,000,000 (US$1,650,000) 3 21.0
Gh¢5,000,000-999,999 (US$1,650,000-3,300,000) 6 19.0
Gh¢10,000,000-20,000,000 (US$3,300,000-6,590,000) 6 13.0
More than Gh¢20,000,000 (US$6,590,000) 16 47.0
Total 81 100.0
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the contractor group which ranked the factor as fourth, the three other project parties
(clients, consultants and donors) ranked the delay factor as second. This high ranking
conrms the study of Ubaid (1991), who identied inadequate contractor experience as
the most important factor of delays in the construction industry. Sambasivan and Soon
(2007) found inadequate contractor experience to be the third critical cause of delays in
the construction industry.
To mitigate this problem, contractors should pay particular attention to the requirements
of the assignment during the pre-contract and bidding period. Patil et al. (2013) recommended
that contractors should not bid for contracts unless they are condent of their capabilities to
perform the work involved successfully. Contractors should ensure proper planning and
scheduling of the works and ensure effective site management and supervision of the works
so as to keep a watch on critical activities and strive to complete projects within the specied
time while meeting quality and cost requirements.
4.3.3 Changes in scope by the owner during construction. Another highly ranked
client-related road project delay factor is “changes of scope by the owner during
construction”. Studies by Kaming et al. (1997) and Al-Momani (2000) support this
nding. They conrmed that scope changes slow down construction as it calls for
meetings and consultations, sourcing of additional funds when necessary and
alterations in the project. Amoatey et al. (2015) ranked variation orders by client as the
fth most critical cause of delays in construction projects. In fact, Love and Edwards
(2004) acknowledge that owner-initiated changes represent a primary cause of scope
creep, resulting in both time and cost overruns. In this study, the contractor-group
ranked the factor as rst, while the consultant-group ranked it as third. The client and
donor groups ranked the delay factor low. Considering the p-value of 0.505 for this delay
factor, it clearly demonstrates consensus among the respondents about the importance
of scope changes from clients on timely project completion.
As a mitigation measure against the effects of “changes of scope by the owner”, we
propose that the client should be involved in discussing project details from the project
initiation phase. All their requirements and specications must be taken into consideration.
There must be an agreement between the contractor and the client concerning the scope.
Finally, the client should be made aware that any changes made later will cause a vital
increase in cost and/or time required to complete the project.
4.3.4 Delay to furnish and deliver the site to the contractor. “Delay to furnish and deliver
the site to the contractor” was ranked overall as the fourth most critical road project delay
factor. This client-related delay factor was ranked third by the client group and fourth by the
donor group. They were ranked lower by the contractor and consultant groups. In Hammadi
and Nawab (2016), “Engineers” ranked this factor as third most critical cause of construction
delays. Gündüz et al. (2013) identied change orders, delay in site delivery and slowness in
decision-making as the most signicant factors under this category.
This situation can be mitigated by ensuring that the contract includes a clause that places
obligation on the client to make this happen. Any additional cost emanating from such
delays must be borne by the client.
4.3.5 Inexible funding allocation for project items (donor-related). This donor-related
delay factor was ranked fth by all project parties. Inexible funding allocation occurs when
development partner organisations are unwilling to allow the client to reallocate funding to
different budget lines. The process of getting no-objection to reallocate funds takes so long
that by the time approval is granted, a lot of time has been lost, resulting in signicant project
delays. In Ghana, the duciary risk is surely the greatest reason for the often strict
compliance requirements by donors, especially as the human capacity constraints in
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planning and budgeting at the agency level are noted to be high and the standards of
transparency in public nance management are generally lower than desired. There are
instances where donor funding was withdrawn because of concerns over inefcient and poor
project management.
To mitigate the effects of these delay factor, road ofcials should be well trained to
understand and work towards meeting the requirements of donor-funded projects. Again,
road agencies should explore more sustainable road funding approaches from domestic
sources such as road tolling and other user charges.
5. Conclusion
Roads play an important part in the development of every country. Despite the surge of
investments in the road sector, the problem of road construction delays has been a major
constraint to an efcient and sustainable road network development in Ghana. An empirical
analysis of 48 road projects reviewed showed that about 70 per cent experience delays, and
average time overrun for most projects is 17 months. The greatest challenge facing the road sector
is how to manage the risk of time overruns and deliver projects within time and budget.
The main objective of this paper was to identify and rank critical road construction delay
factors in Ghana. This research work has contributed to the growing body of knowledge related
to causes of delays in road projects. The identication of the causes of road construction delays
was the focus of this research paper, because road infrastructure projects have received little
attention in this eld of study. The paper sought to ll this gap by carrying out in-depth
investigation of the causes of road project delays in the Ghanaian context.
The study identied ve most critical causes of road construction delays to be delay in
nance and payment of completed work by owner (client-related), inadequate contractor
experience (contractor-related), changes in scope by the owner during construction
(client-related), delay to furnish and deliver the site to the contractor (client-related) and
inexible funding allocation for project items (donor-related). Earlier studies have identied
similar causes of delays in other sub-sectors of the construction industry. Again, most of the
identied causes of road project delays are contractor- and client-related. Measures for
mitigating the effects of these delay factors have been identied and discussed.
6. Limitations of the study and implications for future research
As it is generally the case in all survey-based studies, it is accepted that respondents
answered the questions truthfully and professionally. Nevertheless, it may be assumed that
despite using broadly used terminology to refer to the causes of road project delays, the
interpretations by respondents may have differed from those intended. On further research,
more in-depth investigation of the relationship between time overruns and cost overruns of
road projects should be performed using larger data samples, allowing for principal
component analysis.
These ndings have very critical implications for policy on sustainable nancing of the
road sector. Considering that the most critical cause of road project delays is delay in
payment by government, road managers should ensure that adequate and reliable funding is
secured before projects are embarked upon. Again, to improve on both time and cost
efciency of local contractors, the Ministry of Roads and Highways should develop a
comprehensive training programme to develop the capacity of local contractors, especially in
the area of construction risk management.
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Appendix
Table AI.
Relative importance
index and ranks of
factors of delays in
construction projects
Delay factors
RII
overall SD
Overall
rank
Client Contractor Consultant Donor
F-stat p-value
Signicant
difference
(yes or no)RII Rank RII Rank RII Rank RII Rank
Client-related 0.6660
Delay in payment by owners
(government) 0.7789 0.1424 1 0.7691 1 0.8062 2 0.7823 1 0.7580 1 1.056 0.567 No
Delay to furnish and deliver
the site to the contractor 0.6959 0.0600 4 0.6890 3 0.7108 6 0.6675 9 0.7163 4 0.422 0.736 No
Changes in scope by the owner
during construction 0.7008 0.0643 3 0.6320 9 0.8110 1 0.7089 3 0.6513 11 1.460 0.505 No
Owner interference 0.6390 0.0025 13 0.6002 15 0.6928 9 0.6736 8 0.5894 18 18.188 0.164 No
Slow decision-making 0.6569 0.0204 9 0.6399 8 0.6555 14 0.6909 5 0.6413 13 1.361 0.518 No
Unrealistic contract duration 0.5723 0.0642 21 0.4247 23 0.7566 3 0.5979 18 0.5100 23 1.964 0.450 No
Suspension of work 0.5886 0.0479 18 0.5888 18 0.5837 22 0.5723 21 0.6096 15 8.250 0.239 No
Consultant-related 0.6020
Mistakes and discrepancies in
design documents 0.6358 0.0007 14 0.6405 6 0.6948 8 0.6225 15 0.5854 20 0.582 0.680 No
Unclear and inadequate details
in drawings 0.6325 0.0040 16 0.5977 16 0.6333 16 0.6201 16 0.6789 6 34.250 0.120 No
Delay in approving shop
drawings and sample 0.5870 0.0495 19 0.5831 19 0.5904 21 0.5887 20 0.5857 19 4.500 0.316 No
Inadequate experience of
consultant 0.5528 0.0837 23 0.4590 21 0.5582 23 0.5539 23 0.5501 22 65.500 0.087 No
(continued)
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Table AI.
Delay factors
RII
overall SD
Overall
rank
Client Contractor Consultant Donor
F-stat p-value
Signicant
difference
(yes or no)RII Rank RII Rank RII Rank RII Rank
Contractor-related 0.6597
Difculties in nancing project
by contractor 0.6780 0.0415 6 0.6778 4 0.6803 10 0.6765 7 0.6773 7 4.500 0.316 No
Ineffective planning and
scheduling of projects 0.5837 0.0528 20 0.6051 13 0.5999 20 0.5901 19 0.5897 17 2.250 0.426 No
Poor site management and
supervision 0.6341 0.0024 15 0.6311 10 0.6030 18 0.6433 13 0.6590 9 0.672 0.653 No
Delays in sub-contractors
work 0.6455 0.0090 11 0.6010 14 0.6737 11 0.6601 10 0.6472 12 28.500 0.131 No
Inadequate contractor
experience 0.7496 0.1131 2 0.7444 2 0.7541 4 0.7490 2 0.7509 2 4.500 0.316 No
Rework due to errors during
construction 0.6536 0.0171 10 0.6232 11 0.7019 7 0.6314 14 0.6580 10 0.291 0.795 No
Delay in site mobilization 0.6732 0.0367 7 0.6703 5 0.6662 13 0.6818 6 0.6745 8 0.250 0.816 No
Delay in the preparation of
shop drawings 0.6602 0.0237 8 0.5899 17 0.6724 12 0.6561 11 0.7225 3 85.500 0.076 No
Donor-related 0.6146
Inexible funding allocation
for project items 0.6862 0.0497 5 0.6214 12 0.7418 5 0.6920 4 0.6896 5 2.420 0.414 No
Delay in the release of donor
funds 0.6406 0.0041 12 0.6400 7 0.6511 15 0.6485 12 0.6228 14 8.250 0.239 No
Withdrawal of funding
because of non-compliance
with requirements 0.5902 0.0463 17 0.5491 20 0.6004 19 0.6121 17 0.5992 16 21.500 0.151 No
No-objection requirements 0.5707 0.0658 22 0.5238 22 0.6114 17 0.5699 22 0.5777 21 2.125 0.436 No
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Table AII.
Field data on roads
from the Ghana
Highway Authority,
Department of Feeder
Roads and
Department of Urban
Roads
Road
name
Planned start
date
Actual start
date
Planned
completion date
Actual completion
date
Time overrun
(months)
Initial cost
(million US$)
Actual cost
(million US$)
Cost overrun
(US$)
Cost overrun
(%)
Project 1 18/6/2004 2/12/2004 17/6/2006 17/6/2006 0 28.00 28.00 0 0
Project 2 01/12/04 2/2/2005 13/10/2007 23/6/2010 32 11.84 33.64 21.8 184
Project 3 2/5/2002 2/5/2002 16/10/2004 16/10/2004 0 10.37 10.16, ⫺0.21 ⫺2.03
Project 4 8/10/2002 8/10/2002 31/04/2005 31/04/2005 0 13.91, 11.31, ⫺2.6 ⫺18.7
Project 5 24/11/06 24/11/2006 23/5/2009 25/2/2010 9 40.28 40.71 0.43 1.07
Project 6 2/12/2003 2/12/2003 2/7/2003 2/7/2007 48 32.98 41.00 8.02 24.47
Project 7 1/9/2005 1/9/2005 31/8/2007 22/8/2010 36 15.92 19.24 3.32 20.85
Project 8 16/11/2006 16/11/2006 15/11/2009 25/09/2012 34 32.24, 92.93 60.69 118.24
Project 9 17/6/2008 17/6/2008 16/06/2010 31/01/2013 31 17.19 33.20 16.01 93.14
Project 10 23/6/2008 23/6/2008 13/3/2011 26/2/2013 23 8.11, 10.53, 2.42 29.84
Project 11 7/7/2003 7/7/2003 6/11/2004 6/11/2004 0 20.51 17.44 ⫺3.07 ⫺14.97
Project 12 1/4/2005 1/4/2005 31/03/2007 31/03/2007 0 24.59 32.00 7.41 30.13
Project 13 29/3/2007 29/3/2007 29/09/2008 7/10/2009 12 10.87 18.83 7.96 73.23
Project 14 14/08/2006 14/08/2006 13/8/2008 24/7/2013 59 8.83 8.89 0.06 0.68
Project 15 14/08/2008 14/08/2008 13/8/2010 24/7/2013 35 10.12 10.12 0 0
Project 16 1/9/2007 1/9/2007 1/4/2008 16/04/2008 0 0.59 0.72 0.13 22.03
Project 17 1/11/2008 1/11/2008 27/11/2008 28/6/2009 7 0.93 1.06 0.13 13.98
Project 18 1/3/2008 1/3/2008 26/11/2008 28/6/2009 7 0.93 0.91 ⫺0.02 ⫺2.20
Project 19 5/1/2009 5/1/2009 3/1/2010 22/6/2011 16 7.56 4.10 ⫺3.46 ⫺46.05
Project 20 6/5/2003 6/5/2003 5/5/2005 19/11/2005 6 41.09 73.77 32.68 79.53
Project 21 6/1/2003 6/1/2003 31/07/2005 31/07/2005 0 21.50 20.44 ⫺1.06 ⫺4.93
Project 22 7/11/2000 7/11/2000 6/11/2002 6/11/2002 0 19.92 19.92 0 0
Project 23 10/1/2003 10/1/2003 15/3/2005 15/3/2005 0 22.00 22.00 0 0
Project 24 15/4/2003 15/4/2003 14/4/2004 14/4/2004 0 22.55 18.39 ⫺4.16 ⫺18.45
Project 25 18/12/2002 18/12/2002 25/6/2004 25/6/2004 0 6.39 7.60 1.21 18.94
Project 26 6/6/2003 6/6/2003 5/6/2005 16/6/2011 78 11.82 20.47 8.65 73.18
Project 27 16/11/2006 16/11/2006 15/5/2008 8/4/2011 3.5 13.58 9.57 ⫺4.01 ⫺29.53
Project 28 30/5/2000 30/5/2000 30/5/2002 31/10/2004 29 4.30 6.25 1.95 45.35
Project 29 13/1/2011 27/11/2011 27/01/2011 06/10/2012 22 3.02 2.03 ⫺0.99 ⫺32.78
(continued)
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Table AII.
Road
name
Planned start
date
Actual start
date
Planned
completion date
Actual completion
date
Time overrun
(months)
Initial cost
(million US$)
Actual cost
(million US$)
Cost overrun
(US$)
Cost overrun
(%)
Project 30 29/5/2007 25/08/2011 29/08/2007 5/09/2011 49 1.27 – – –
Project 31 1/9/2009 15/09/2009 15/06/2011 13/07/2011 1 3.35 4.84 1.49 33.73
Project 32 22/1/2010 11/02/2010 11/12/2010 19/11/2010 ⫺1 1.5 1.25 ⫺0.25 ⫺16.67
Project 33 30/4/2008 18/008/2008 18/07/2009 11/11/2010 14 0.40 0.21 ⫺0.19 ⫺47.5
Project 34 31/1/2012 16/05/2012 15/03/2013 05/02/2013 ⫺1 1.65 1.54 ⫺0.11 ⫺6.67
Project 35 04/9/2009 18/08/2009 18/11/2010 21/03/2012 16 2.43 4.74 2.31 95.06
Project 36 21/1/2010 04/02/2010 04/10/2010 17/08/2011 10 0.41 0.43 0.02 4.88
Project 37 21/5/2010 02/08/2010 02/06/2011 17/12/2012 18 1.43 2.28 0.85 59.44
Project 38 26/9/2006 26/09/2006 29/01/2009 05/11/2010 22 2.80 1.19 ⫺1.61 ⫺57.50
Project 39 28/1/2010 09/02/2010 09/12/2010 25/08/2011 8 6.54 2.79 ⫺3.75 ⫺57.34
Project 40 01/9/2009 14/09/2009 14/07/2010 21/06/2011 11 6.29 4.66 ⫺1.63 ⫺25.91
Project 41 22/2/2010 11/02/2010 12/12/2010 28/10/10 ⫺2 1.50 1.13 ⫺0.37 ⫺24.67
Project 42 24/03/2007 24/03/2007 25/1/2008 11/12/2012 59 0.27 1.03 0.76 281.48
Project 43 9/9/2011 9/9/2011 9/2/2013 17/09/2013 7 1.79 2.08 0.29 16.20
Project 44 11/12/2008 11/12/2008 2/2/2009 18/9/2012 56 0.63 0.60 ⫺0.03 ⫺4.76
Project 45 18/5/2009 18/5/2009 17/5/2010 27/3/2013 34 0.36 0.36 0 0
Project 46 28/11/2011 28/11/2011 28/06/2013 8/11/2013 5 1.18 1.92 0.74 62.71
Project 47 8/9/2008 8/9/2008 7/9/2009 25/7/2013 35 0.93 3.16 2.23 239.78
Project 48 5/10/2011 5/10/2011 3/12/2012 20/9/2012 ⫺3 0.79 1.13 0.34 43.04
JFM
15,2
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Corresponding author
Charles Teye Amoatey can be contacted at: camoatey@gimpa.edu.gh
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Table AIII.
Correlation matrix
Client Contractor Consultant Donor
Client
Spearman’s rho 1.000 0.522 0.772 0.657
p-value – 0.011 0.000 0.001
N(number of cases) 23 23 23 23
Contractor
Spearman’s rho 0.522 1.000 0.728 0.442
p-value 0.011 – 0.000 0.035
N(number of cases) 23 23 23 23
Consultant
Spearman’s rho 0.772 0.728 1.000 0.725
p-value 0.000 0.000 – 0.000
N(number of cases) 23 23 23 23
Donor
Spearman’s rho 0.657 0.442 0.725 1.000
p-value 0.001 0.035 0.000 –
N(number of cases) 23 23 23 23
Note: Correlation is signicant at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels (two-tailed)
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