This study aims at identifying the main causes of change orders in highway construction projects, determining the factors that affect rework in highway construction projects…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at identifying the main causes of change orders in highway construction projects, determining the factors that affect rework in highway construction projects, examining the relationship between change orders and rework and at developing a predictive model that will determine the impact of change orders on rework in highway construction projects in Palestine.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was used to identify the main change order causes and rework causes from the perspectives of contractors and consultants. The questionnaire contained 16 causes of change orders and 19 causes of rework which had been identified from the literature reviewed. The study also identifies the impact of change orders on rework based on data comprising 22 highway construction projects implemented in Palestine. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the data.
Findings
The study concluded that the five most common causes of change orders can be identified as: change of project scope by owner (additional – enhancement), lack of coordination between construction parties; owner’s financial difficulties, change in materials, and errors and omissions in design. The study has also established that among the various factors that causes rework, non-conformance with specification requirements, scope changes, late design changes, lack of labor experience, lack of labor skills and improper subcontractor selection top the list. Using regression analysis, the results reveal a significant relationship between change orders and rework cost in highway construction projects in Palestine.
Practical implications
By ranking the various change orders causes and rework causes from the perspectives of consultants and contractors, the study provides a fresh perspective on an old chronic problem in the construction sector. This study has provided evidence on the most significant change orders causes and rework causes in the Palestinian highway construction, as well as the impact of change orders or rework on constructions sites. Finally, although this study is specific to the country of Palestine, its results can be applicable to other developing countries facing similar problems in their public construction sectors.
Originality/value
The results address the common causes of change orders and reworks in highway construction projects in Palestine. The results also address the relation between change orders and rework cost based on data collected from highway construction projects implemented in the West Bank in Palestine. This study is the first study conducted in the West Bank in Palestine to identify the change orders and reworks causes in highway construction projects.
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This study aims to investigate the schedule deviation in road construction projects and the effect of project physical characteristics on schedule deviations. The study also…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the schedule deviation in road construction projects and the effect of project physical characteristics on schedule deviations. The study also addresses the main factors affecting time deviation in road construction projects.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a sample of 101 road construction projects awarded in the West Bank in Palestine over the years 2010-2015. The study investigates the time deviation in total project duration and the deviations in major activities of road construction projects: earthworks, base works and asphalt works. Based on the collected data, regression models are developed to show the relation between actual duration and estimated duration. The study also investigates the effect of project physical characteristics on time deviation through regression analysis. The considered characteristics are: project size, terrain conditions, ground conditions and soil quality. To identify the main factors affecting time deviation, a survey of 40 contractors and 30 consultants was performed.
Findings
The study reveals the following: average of time deviations in earthworks = 46.48 per cent, average of time deviation in base works = 29.66 per cent, average of time deviation in asphalt works = 23.43 per cent and average of time deviation in total duration = 47.72 per cent. Regression models that investigate the effect of physical project characteristics (i.e. project size, terrain condition, ground condition and soil quality) on time deviation are discussed. The survey reveals that the top five factors affecting delay in road construction projects are political situation, payments delay by the owner, lack of coordination between construction parties, frequent change orders and unexpected ground condition and terrain.
Originality/value
This study investigates the schedule deviation in road construction projects and the effect of project physical characteristics on schedule deviations. The study also addresses the main factors affecting time deviation in road construction projects. The study is based on field data collected from 101 road construction projects and a questionnaire survey conducted in the West Bank in Palestine. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations are formulated to control the problem of time deviation in construction projects. Although this study is specific to the country of Palestine, its results can be applicable to other developing countries facing similar problems in their public construction sectors.
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– The study aims at identifying the factors affecting labor productivity in building construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from contractors’ viewpoint.
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims at identifying the factors affecting labor productivity in building construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from contractors’ viewpoint.
Design/methodology/approach
To do so, 59 contractors working in building construction completed a structured questionnaire survey and the factors were ranked according to their levels of influence. In all, 31 factors were identified through literature review. These factors were grouped into five groups: labor, managerial, materials and equipments, environmental, and financial.
Findings
The analysis of the identified 31 factors indicates that the top-five factors negatively affecting labor productivity in building construction are: rework, lack of cooperation and communication between construction parties, financial status of the owner, lack of labor experience, and lack in materials.
Originality/value
This study is original and has not been published before. The findings and recommendations of this study are very useful and helpful for the local firms and the international firms who are planning to do works in the West Bank
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Modish Kumar and Santosh Kumari
This paper aims to evaluate the available research to identify the factors contributing to the delays in road construction projects. The primary goals of this study are to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate the available research to identify the factors contributing to the delays in road construction projects. The primary goals of this study are to determine the critical elements that cause delays in road projects, and to investigate the appropriate corrective actions suggested to lessen the delays in road projects. The study also assesses the theoretical background, methodology, limitations and future research prospects suggested in relevant research works related to causes for delays in road construction.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted systematic literature review in three steps: collecting relevant literature, descriptive analysis and content analysis. This study used keyword analysis and thematic content analysis on some relevant selected studies. NVivo 12 was used for thematic content analysis utilising description-focused coding, the text was thematically analysed, three other software: MS Excel, VOSviewer and Mendeley were also used for analysis in this study.
Findings
The findings revealed that road projects around the world experienced delays and the reasons for delays are many. After the analysis of literature, number of factors causing delays in road projects were identified, which were then divided into seven broad groups using thematic content analysis. The investigation shows that variations in design and inefficient management of project by contractor including inadequate planning and scheduling are the top two factors of delay. The most frequent suggested corrective measure to reduce delay was employing technically competent employees and contractor should conduct thorough survey on his part, rather than just accepting the survey report at face value.
Research limitations/implications
This review paper is addressing the issues related to delays in road construction projects and suggests remedial measure to reduce them. The paper will be useful for researchers, industry professionals, academician and policy makers concerned with the road construction projects. The study conducted the review of selected relevant articles related to causes of delay in road construction projects for qualitative analysis. The research articles using quantitative methods and studies conducted on other types of infrastructure projects were not included; however, findings from this study may be applicable to other construction projects as well.
Practical implications
The findings of this paper are useful in the fields of economy, industry, academia and public policies. The paper thoroughly examined the factors causing delays in highway projects, offering insights for practitioners to identify best practices and mitigation strategies. These findings can guide investment and policy decisions for highway infrastructure projects, promoting a holistic approach to development. Additionally, this paper can help enhance research methods in studies about delays in road infrastructure projects.
Originality/value
The literature review in the paper used a qualitative method. The causes of road project delays, remedial action, context, methodology and theoretical foundation were all examined in this paper.
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The aim of this study is to identify the risk matrix for factors causing time delay in road construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from owners' viewpoint.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to identify the risk matrix for factors causing time delay in road construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from owners' viewpoint.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 43 factors that might cause delays of road construction projects were defined through a detailed literature review. The factors were tabulated in a questionnaire form, which was sent out to a total of 25 public owners asking their contribution in identifying the risk matrix for the 43 factors in terms of impact and probability of occurrence. Three zones were used in the matrix according to the degree of factors' severity on the projects' time delay; they are: green, yellow, and red.
Findings
The analysis of 43 factors considered indicates that six factors are located in the green zone, 29 factors are located in the yellow zone, and eight factors are located in the red zone.
Originality/value
The paper identifies the risk matrix for factors affecting time delay in road construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from the owners' perspective.
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The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors that have the potential to cause a contractor's business failure in the West Bank in Palestine and to determine their…
Abstract
Purpose
The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors that have the potential to cause a contractor's business failure in the West Bank in Palestine and to determine their impact level from the contractor's viewpoint.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 84 contractors from the West Bank in Palestine was performed. A total of 44 factors were considered in this study and were listed under three groups, i.e. financial, managerial, and external.
Findings
Contractors have ranked the following factors as highly influential with huge potential to cause contractor's business failure: fluctuation in construction material costs; delay in collecting dibs from clients; lack of experience in contracts; low margin of profit due to competition; and closure and limitation of movement between West Bank areas.
Originality/value
This paper identified the factors that have the potential to cause contractor's business failure in the West Bank in Palestine and determined their impact level from the contractor's viewpoint.
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Naiming Xie, Chuanzhen Hu and Songming Yin
The purpose of this paper is to establish a combined model for selecting key indexes of complex equipment, and then improve the cost forecasting precision of the model. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish a combined model for selecting key indexes of complex equipment, and then improve the cost forecasting precision of the model. The problem how to choose the key elements of complex products has always been concerned on many fields, such as cost assessment, investment decision making, etc.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Grey System Theory to establish a cost estimation model of complicated equipment is more reasonable under the few data and poor information. Therefore, this paper constructs cost index’s system of complex equipment, and then quantitative and qualitative analysis methods are utilized to calculate the grey entropy between the characteristic parameter and the behavior parameters. Further, establish the grey relational clustering matrix of the behavior sequences by using the grey relative incidence analysis. Finally, the authors select key indicators according to the grey degree.
Findings
The experiment demonstrates that the cost key parameters of complex equipment can be successfully screened out by the proposed approach, and the cost estimation accuracy of complicated products is improved.
Practical implications
The method proposed in this paper could be utilized to solve some practical problems, particularly the selection of cost critical parameters for complex products with few samples and poor information. Taking the cost key indexes of civil aircraft as an example, the results verified the validity of the GICM model.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors develop the method of GICM model. Taking the data of civil aircraft as an example, the authors screen the key indicators of complex products successfully, and improve the prediction accuracy of the GM (1, N) model by using the selected parameters, which provides a reference for some firms.
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Nirodha Fernando, Kasun Dilshan T.A. and Hexin (Johnson) Zhang
The Government’s investment in infrastructure projects is considerably high, especially in bridge construction projects. Government authorities must establish an initial…
Abstract
Purpose
The Government’s investment in infrastructure projects is considerably high, especially in bridge construction projects. Government authorities must establish an initial forecasted budget to have transparency in transactions. Early cost estimating is challenging for Quantity Surveyors due to incomplete project details at the initial stage and the unavailability of standard cost estimating techniques for bridge projects. To mitigate the difficulties in the traditional preliminary cost estimating methods, there is a requirement to develop a new initial cost estimating model which is accurate, user friendly and straightforward. The research was carried out in Sri Lanka, and this paper aims to develop the artificial neural network (ANN) model for an early cost estimate of concrete bridge systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The construction cost data of 30 concrete bridge projects which are in Sri Lanka constructed within the past ten years were trained and tested to develop an ANN cost model. Backpropagation technique was used to identify the number of hidden layers, iteration and momentum for optimum neural network architectures.
Findings
An ANN cost model was developed, furnishing the best result since it succeeded with around 90% validation accuracy. It created a cost estimation model for the public sector as an accurate, heuristic, flexible and efficient technique.
Originality/value
The research contributes to the current body of knowledge by providing the most accurate early-stage cost estimate for the concrete bridge systems in Sri Lanka. In addition, the research findings would be helpful for stakeholders and policymakers to propose policy recommendations that positively influence the prediction of the most accurate cost estimate for concrete bridge construction projects in Sri Lanka and other developing countries.
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Muhammad T. Hatamleh, Mohammed Hiyassat, Ghaleb Jalil Sweis and Rateb Jalil Sweis
Cost estimating process is an important element within the project life cycle. Comprehensive information, expanded knowledge, considerable expertise, and continuous improvement…
Abstract
Purpose
Cost estimating process is an important element within the project life cycle. Comprehensive information, expanded knowledge, considerable expertise, and continuous improvement are needed to obtain accurate cost estimation. The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical factors that affect accuracy of cost estimation and evaluate the degree to which these factors are important from contractors’ and consultants’ viewpoints.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative and quantitative research approaches were adopted in collecting and analyzing the data, and testing the hypotheses. Based on the literature review, a questionnaire was prepared and then was modified according to the results of face-to-face open-ended interviews conducted with 11 project managers. The final version of the questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 265 respondents. For analyzing the collected data Kendall’s and Mann-Whitney tests were conducted.
Findings
The analysis revealed that there is a strong agreement between contractors and consultants in the ranking of the factors related to consultant, contractor, design parameters, and information. A slightly weak agreement between contractors and consultants was noted regarding the factors related to market conditions (external factors) and factors related to project characteristics. Furthermore, the results show that the top ten factors affecting the accuracy of cost estimate are clear and detail drawings and specification, pricing experience of construction projects, perception of estimation importance, equipment (cost/availability/performance), project complexity, clear scope definition, accuracy and reliability of cost information, site constraints (access, storage, services), material availability, financial capabilities of the client, and availability of database of bids on similar project (historical data).
Originality/value
Offers an original view of the concept of accuracy of cost estimates as it relates to the efficiency of the project relying on both literature review and empirical evidence.