Abstract
The construction project is regarded successful when it is given over to the owner within the time, cost, and standards necessary while minimizing delays in public construction projects. Debre Markos University (DMU) is one of the public universities undergoing massive development projects that are experiencing significant delays. This article evaluates the most prevalent delay issues encountered by Ethiopian government-funded construction projects, particularly those using DMU, analyzes their impacts, and suggests a delay management system. The study applied qualitative as well as quantitative techniques to evaluate primary and secondary data. Per the entirety statistics, the top five most important and highly ranked factors are erroneous time estimates, force majeure, lowest bid, procurement policy, and volatile markets, as well as frequent design changes. Nearly every DMU project schedule overruns up to 268.67% of its contract duration. As a result, the institution suffered from poor public relations and a high cost of supervision and contract administration (6.87% of the overall project cost). Conducting a thorough and accurate project feasibility study, awarding bids to experienced contractors, avoiding drawing discrepancies, preparing an accurate initial time and cost estimate, and strict schedule monitoring were discovered to be effective techniques for reducing delays in public construction projects.
1. Introduction
Time and cost overruns are two of the most serious issues confronting the construction sector in developing nations such as Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government is undertaking a variety of development projects, ranging from buildings to several megastructures such as the Great Renaissance Dam. Advanced technologies, new standards, multiparty engagement, and frequent owner-desired adjustments characterize modern construction projects. When combined with the inherent pitfalls and challenges in the physical, monetary, and economic contexts in which most projects are carried out, these circumstances have made completing projects on time and on the allocated funds a difficult task to accomplish, frequently leading to claims for cost compensation and/or time extensions, and it epitomizes additional costs due to late facility occupancy or other factors. Furthermore, it is a loss of revenue, a lack of productivity, and a reliance on current facilities for the client of the project. Construction delays, on the other hand, indicate higher costs, longer work duration, increased labor costs, higher material and equipment costs, and so on to the contractor. This eventually causes a delay in the project’s completion [1].
A delay can be described as a time overrun that extends beyond the completion date indicated in a contract or beyond the date specified by the parties for the completion of the project [2]. The delay might happen alongside other delays, and all of them may have an impact on the project’s completion schedule [3]. Delays can lead to overruns in time and costs, disputes, court proceedings, poor quality, deliveries, and ultimate abandonment [4]. Construction project delays hurt investors’ contractual rights by increasing combative relationships, distrust, litigation, arbitration, cash-flow issues, and a general sense of fear toward each other [5]. The delay was also defined as an “act event which extends the required time to perform or complete work under t contract and manifests itself as additional days of work” [6]. Local and international standards contain declarations about construction delays. A number of the standard documents that outline each party’s rights and obligations regarding construction delays are FIDIC, PPA, and the 1960 Ethiopian Civil Code [7–10].
The construction industry is an essential aspect of the economy and has a significant impact on the efficiency and production of other industries; large investment in other sectors is not possible without the necessary infrastructure in place [11]. The construction sector is becoming more dynamic as technology, money, and construction procedures become more uncertain. Construction projects are becoming increasingly complicated and challenging, and the construction project team is confronted with novel obstacles. Clients regard the timely completion of a construction project to be a major indicator of project success [12]. Alemayehu [13] defined delay as an occurrence that increases the time required to complete contract tasks. It frequently manifests as extra days of work or a delayed start of activity [14].
It is critical to analyze whether additional time extensions are necessary for critical activities because the type of delay has an impact on them. There are two types of excusable delays: those that are excusable with compensation and those that are not [2, 4, 10, 15]. A client, end-user, consultant, designer, owner, contractor, or supplier may cause a delay. Seife [16] indicates that the main reasons for time claims in Bahir Dar University projects include client fails to deliver the site to contractors, variations in work orders by the client and consultant, design issues, bad weather conditions, and a significant increase in the volume of work. A general overview of delay-causing factors in Ethiopian public construction projects is shown in Table 1.
In the construction environment, the term “delay” often has a negative connotation for key players specific and the industry overall. According to the Journal of the Ethiopian Association of Civil Engineers [21], it implies claims, price hikes for a client, a reduction in profit/return, cost of both d extensions, increasing expenses for operation and upkeep of infrastructure, loss of business opportunities, abandonment of the project and drop-in construction activities, bad reputation, and liability to secure financing for the project or secure it at a higher cost due to the major effects of time overrun discovered in construction projects. Claims, distrust, litigation, cost overruns, cash flow issues, and a negative hostile relationship among stakeholders are instances. Sambasivan and Soon [4] stated that the top six effects of delays reported in a study of the effects of construction delays on the project construction sector were cost run time overrun, disagreement, arbitration, lawsuit, and abandonment. Kemo [19] and Tilahun [12] stated that the following were the six most often seen repercussions of delay: (1) time overrun, (2) overrun of cost, (3) conflicts, (4) arbitration, (5) lawsuit, and (6) outright abandonment.
Aibinu and Jagboro [2] highlighted two approaches to reduce or, if possible, eliminate time overruns: acceleration of site activity and provision for contingencies. Tilahun [12] revealed that minimizing time delays and cost overruns would necessitate: ensuring an adequate and available source of finance until project completion; allocating sufficient time and money for the design phase; selecting a competent consultant and a reliable contractor to carry out the work; performing a preconstruction planning of project tasks and resource needs; hiring an independent supervising engineer to monitor the progress of the work; and ensuring timely completion. Alemayehu [13] recommended improving the construction project’s situation by enforcing liquidated damage clauses along with providing rewards for early completion; adopting an innovative approach to contract award procedures that giddiness weight to price and more weight to contractors’ capabilities and previous performance; and adopting a novel approach to contracting, such as design-build and construction management (CM) types of contracts. Yifredew [6] stated that essential success element delays are caused by project managers’ competency, time management, control system and duties, monitoring and feedback, and ongoing involvement in the project. Aibinu et al. [2, 11, 22] proposed that clear goals and project missions, support from upper management, a capable project manager, a qualified project team, sufficient resources, client/customer participation and consultation, effective communication, responsiveness to clients, proper monitoring, and comments are the factors to be considered in ensuring the successful completion of the project. According to Jagbor [23], the following are some strategies for reducing delays: competent project manager, ensuring an adequate and available source of finance, multidisciplinary/competent project team; availability of resources; commitment to projects, adopting a new approach to contract award procedures by giving less weight to prices and more weight to contractors’ capabilities and past performance, adopting new contracting approaches such as design-build (D/B) and construction manager (CM), complete and accurate project feasibility study and site investigation, expedited site clearance, comprehensive contract documentation, frequent progress meetings, project management assistance, utilization of up-to-date technology, and use of experienced subcontractors and suppliers, complete and proper design at the right time, competent consultant/designer personnel, competent and capable client’s representative, site management and supervision use of props, proper material procurement; developing human resources in the construction industry through proper training, allocation of sufficient time and money at the design phase, awarding bids to the right/experience consultant and contractor, perform a preconstruction planning of project tasks and resources needs, systematic control mechanism and effective strategic planning.
There are 45 public universities in Ethiopia, with Debre Markos University being the most recent to open its doors in 2008. DMU has built many construction projects for the university’s expansion in the last 15 years, including health compass, bure compass, a comprehensive teaching hospital, and main compass expansion programs such as classrooms, laboratories, administration buildings, auditoriums, staff and student launches, hotel and tourism, entrepreneurship training centers, digital libraries, and postgraduate buildings in the main compass to achieve the government’s strategic policy in the educational sector. Yet, none of the projects were completed by the deadline. As a result, the majority of the new programs that were meant to be launched in its new faculty are being hosted by the current faculties, creating an overburdening scenario. This vital and practical problem has overwhelmed our minds, producing and damaging delays on Ethiopian public construction projects (case study on DMU construction projects). As a consequence, the focus of this study is on public construction projects at DMU, which will assess for delays and examine the corresponding impacts identified, as well as provide a recommendation based on the findings to improve project performance within university projects and general public construction projects in Ethiopia.
2. Objectives
This investigation intended to assess the primary variables responsible for delays in public construction projects in overland specifically Debre Markos University, and their impact on progress and on-time delivery and also propose approaches and techniques for reducing construction delays to overcome the problems.
2.1. Research Methods
In Ethiopia, public construction projects are rapidly expanding and the largest receiver of government funds under the government’s development policy. It accounts for roughly 45% of the yearly government capital budget [24]. This study aims to identify the key reasons for the delay, their effects, and ways for mitigating them in Ethiopian public building projects, such as DMU.
The types of analyses used in this research were primarily descriptive due to their ease of gathering people’s opinions on a certain subject. This strategy is focused on gathering data and obtaining completely precise knowledge about the current state of phenomena, as well as concluding facts collected wherever possible [25].
However, before selecting a sample, the sampling unit must be identified. A sample unit can be a geographical unit such as a state, district, hamlet, building unit, or social unit. As a result, the sample unit for this study was Ethiopian public building projects in general, and specifically the DMU project office (DMUPO). Purposive sampling was used in this study to collect the targeted respondents who are considered to have relevant information about the study’s aims. Following that, data were gathered through document reviews, questionnaire surveys, and case studies. The questionnaire survey data were organized, coded, categorized, analyzed, and interpreted using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23 with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for reliability in equation (1) and the Relative Importance Index (RII) to determine the ranking of cause and effects of delay in the following equation:where = the number of items on the scale. = the variance of item i, and = the variance of the observed total test scores.where is the total weight given to each factor by the respondents, which ranges from 1 to 5, and is calculated by adding the various weightings given to a factor by the entire respondent, H is the highest ranking available (in this case, 5), and N is the total number of respondents who answered the question.
2.2. Ethical Considerations
This study adhered to the ethical criteria of research requirements. By keeping the information obtained private, the respondents’ privacy and confidentiality were safeguarded. The fraud was avoided by alerting construction companies about the goal of the research and its ramifications for the respondents, and the actual names of the enterprises were replaced with fictitious company names.
3. Results and Discussions
3.1. Desk Study
DMU has had a total of 71 projects since March 30, 2022. Thirty of them have been finished, seven have been terminated, 24 are underway, and ten are in the design and bid stages. The major consulting firm for DMU expansion projects is Alexo Design Share Company (ADSC), a public consulting business, and Birana Consulting PLC, a private consulting firm, is one of the other consultants outside the DMU project office.
Generally, when we see the DMU construction projects, the progress of almost all projects’ percentage of execution is far behind their elapsed time, and most of the projects are undergoing work outside of their contract time frame. For this, out of a total of seventy-one DMU projects, including projects on bid and design, there is no single project that ends at its predefined time. Rather, they experienced the termination of seven projects that were too delayed.
3.2. The Severity of DMU’s Construction Project Delay
Table 2 shows the magnitude of schedule overruns on selected completed projects, with a total of 88.35% delay on previously completed projects. This means that all projects were finished in more than double the time expected, resulting in a severe loss for the client (DMU). Because the percentage of work completed lags far behind the percentage of elapsed time, we can predict that projects completed within the contract time will also face time overruns unless they compensate for the lag time of the crash program by deploying the necessary resources.
Contractors may lose money, time, and a positive brand image as a result of project delays. They incur additional fees for longer salaries, machinery, and vehicle rent, as well as additional overhead costs associated with project delays. Administrators, office workers, supervisors, and other overhead expenditures such as insurance and equipment leasing accumulate in projects as long as the project is not completed. The entire overhead costs rise when there is a delay. To illustrate the size of the effect, the average contractor’s 20% overhead cost is considered, as given in Table 3.
When we look at the construction projects that are currently under construction, as shown in Table 4, nine of them have completed their contract time and can be classified as delayed projects. The reset three consumed more than 60% of their intended time, and their work done percentage is less than 35% in reverse. As a result, unless they compensate for the elapsed time of working under the crash program by deploying the necessary resources, they are likewise vulnerable to schedule delays. As an outcome of this, the DMU construction projects endured and suffered delays.
According to the document analysis, the key causes of delays in Debre Markos University construction projects are lateness in giving orders, low contractor capability, bad contractor project management, and construction materials market volatility.
Nevertheless, the researcher disagrees with the document analysis results. Because all 71 completed, ongoing, and design and bid stage projects are vulnerable to delays, they may be delayed not only due to the contractor’s capacity and market fluctuation but also due to improper time estimation, poor supervision, unresolved rights of way, frequent design changes, and poor client and consultant decisions.
Aside from poor quality products and structural failures, additional costs due to market fluctuations, and biding costs for canceled projects, construction project delays affect the client’s ability to incur additional costs for consultants. As stated in Table 5, DMU was exposed to a cost of more than eighteen million birrs for consultation fees in the delayed time for only 22 selected projects out of 71 projects held by the university.
We can conclude from this case study that the public client, DMU, is the most affected by the cost overrun effect of delays because its projects are far behind schedule, having a significant impact on its teaching-learning programs and is forced to look for an additional budget to complete those projects that are suffering and require extra time to be completed due to the consultant’s fee and accommodations, etc., that are related to the extended project’s duration.
4. Questioner Survey
4.1. Characteristics and Profiles of Respondents
The questionnaire was produced and given to three contractual parties, namely, contractors, clients, and consultants who are currently working on DMU construction project sites, as well as in-person contact by visiting all project sites, including the bure and health campus.
According to Table 6, the questionnaire survey response rate for contractors, consultants, and clients was 88%, 83.33%, and 85.71%, respectively. According to Sekaran [20], for most investigations, a response rate of 30% is sufficient. As a result, the response rate was deemed adequate for the study. Furthermore, to obtain reliable information for the study, the respondents’ educational background and professional qualifications were restricted to a minimum of a BSc degree in Civil engineering, construction engineering, construction management and technology, or a related profession.
The results of the respondents’ interim job experience, as shown in Figure 1, clearly illustrate that the results obtained are valid. This suggests that responders are anticipated to be more knowledgeable about the topic of the questionnaire.
The primary goal of this research was to identify the primary causes and consequences of delays in public construction projects in Ethiopia in general, and notably in DMU. According to Table 7, the majority of respondents (87.4%) agree that time and cost overruns are the most serious issues in DMU development projects. which also supports the document review of the construction project delay magnitude discussed in Tables 4 and 5, which states that there is a total delay of 88.35% on the previously completed and now under construction projects, respectively.
4.2. Reliability Test
Quality is usually one of the most essential topics in research, and as such, it may primarily be determined through testing for reliability and validity. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, with a value ranging from 0 to 1, was used to examine the reliability or consistency of the questionnaire survey. Its worth was calculated using equation (1), and the values for clients, consultants, contractors, and overall responders were 0.825, 0.760, 0.911, and 0.879, respectively. All results exceeded the minimum level of reliability, 0.7 [22]. As a result, it is possible to conclude that the questionnaire survey was credible and consistent.
4.3. Factors Causing Delay of DMU Construction Projects
Construction delays are a commonly acknowledged truth and a prevalent issue in building projects. Delays in construction projects occur due to a variety of circumstances and causes. These causes are categorized into four-factor groups in this study: clients, consultants, contractors, and external associated variables.
According to the questionnaire survey results, Table 8, the most important, highly ranked, and high level of importance consultant-related delay causes are inaccurate time estimates, frequent design changes, delay in performing testing and inspection, failure to give written instructions, late reviewing and approving design documents, preparing an incomplete or undetailed BOQ, and delay in approving a major change in the scope of work. Contractor-related delay factors include: contractor financial capacity, late material delivery, low-balling/low cost, work suspension on the engineer’s order, and inadequate coordination and communication with other parties. Client-related delay causes include insufficient staff, slow decision-making, information delays, change orders, and change of mind during construction, while external delay causes include force majeure, lowest bid procurement policy, construction material market instability, poor economic conditions (currency, inflation rate, LC, etc.), and construction material shortage. In addition, respondents suggested evaluating payment delays and the lengthy and bureaucratic payment processes as potential causes of project delays because the lowest bids may be from unqualified contractors. As a result, poor contractor performance will ensue, affecting the project timetable.
The respondents’ rankings are depicted in Figure 2. The consultants were responsible for 35% of the top twenty-six potential delay causes with a high priority level, while external variables were responsible for 27%. With a 19% share each, contractors and clients are equally responsible for building project delays in DMU.
4.4. Delay Effect on DMU Construction Projects
The aim to complete a project on schedule, within budget, and to the best quality is shared by all contracting parties, including the owner, contractor, and consultants. Delays typically result in the loss of one or more forms for everyone. Time overruns, cost overruns, wastage and underutilization of resources, tying down of the client’s capital due to noncompletion of the project, abandonment of the project, the dispute between parties, reduced profit or total loss, arbitration, and litigation and court cases were the nine effects of delay identified. Respondents were asked to score their agreement on the effect of delay by linking it to the delay it creates in this regard.
Table 9 results demonstrate that discontent by project owners and, as a result, end-users (bad public relations), is ranked first, followed by the high expense of supervision and contract administration for the project’s consultant. Loss of users’ benefit if it had been completed on time, loss of profit for noncompletion to the contractor, material price escalation costs, pouring money unnecessarily into the project at hand at the expense of other new projects, extended site overhead and general overhead expenses, and liquidated damage expenses. The third through tenth grades were discovered to have the biggest impact on DMU building delays, with a high level of relevance. Every stage of a project’s life cycle requires time. When a contract is completed and a deadline is set, the effect of delay affects time and increases the final cost; more money must be paid. Delays will also result in personnel and resource waste and underutilization. These three consequences are intricately linked. According to the correlation between the causes and effects of delay, the phrase “time overrun” refers to late completion or late delivery from the period stipulated or agreed upon by all construction project stakeholders. The primary causes of time overruns are financial issues, late payments for completed and continuing work, change orders, ineffective planning and scheduling, bad site management, material supply delays, and so on.
Cost overruns are the rising costs of labor, labor force, materials, equipment, and so on. The primary sources of cost overruns are modification orders, contract errors, changes in drawings, faulty cost estimation, and so on. Wastage and underutilization of resources related to idle labor, reduced worker and equipment productivity, and so on. Late procurement and material delivery, slow response and approval modification orders, insufficient material supply, changes in drawings, weather conditions, unforeseen site conditions, and other factors are the primary causes of resource underutilization. Disagreements between parties in a building project are referred to as disputes among parties. Slow or late payments for completed or ongoing work, poor communication and coordination, and client meddling are the primary reasons for disagreements. Litigation and court cases refer to legal proceedings in a court to solve problems, which might take a long time. The major causes of litigation and court disputes are late or nonpayment for completed work, increases in material pricing, and so on. Abandonment is halting all work or suspending the project for an extended period. The most common reasons for desertion are regulatory changes, financial and payment issues, natural calamities, and so on.
4.5. Mitigation Measures for Delay of DMU Construction Project
A construction project delay that is not effectively handled or managed will have a detrimental impact on the project, the parties participating in the project, and the construction industry as a whole. Handling delays covers how an extension of time for the delayed project is granted, beginning with notification of the delay, and the degree of enforcing liquidated damage clauses put into the contract agreement.
As shown in Table 10, some of the construction delays minimizing mechanisms in public construction projects include conducting feasibility studies before starting projects, selecting appropriate contractors for specific projects, ensuring all design/drawing and contract documents are clear and complete, accurately estimating the time and cost of the project, and ensuring the allocated budget is available before starting the project.
5. Conclusion
The following conclusions are derived in parallel with the study’s purpose based on literature reviews, questionnaire responses, and case studies. The key causes of the delay from the consultants’ duty were found to include an erroneous time estimate, frequent design changes, delays in executing testing and inspection, failure to offer written instructions, and late evaluating and approving design papers. Financial capacity, late delivery of materials, law-balling, stoppage of construction upon the engineer’s direction, and inadequate coordination and communication with other parties were discovered to be the key causes of delays on the contractor’s side. On the other hand, the client’s liability and force majeure was judged to be insufficient staffing, delayed decision-making, information delays, modification orders, and change of mind throughout construction. External sources of delay for DMU construction projects were discovered to be the lowest bid procurement policy, construction material market instability, weak economic conditions, and construction material shortage.
Dissatisfaction by project owners and, as a result, end-users, high cost of supervision and contract administration for the project’s consultant, loss of users’ benefit that would have been obtained if it had been completed on time, delay in getting service by clients, loss of profit for noncompletion to the contractor, material price escalation costs, pouring money unnecessarily into the project at hand at the expense of other new projects, extended site overhead and general overhead expenses, and expenses for liquidated damage were found in the sequences of construction projects delayed by DMU.
The outcomes of the case study revealed that not a single project was completed within the time frame specified. Rather, they had six projects terminated because they were too late. The delay for finished and ongoing projects ranges from 11.11% (main compass security tower) to 150.5% (main compass staff launch) and 6.11% (bure compass library buildings) to 268.67% (water wall to main compass), omitting the time required to complete the projects. Furthermore, the university lost 19,679,445.97 in consulting fees during the delay, and the contractors lost nearly 3.07% of the total contract amount during the delay due to project overhead costs.
In general, the study discovered that project schedule delays harmed both the client and the contractors. The degree of harm changes from contract to contract in each project and has a cumulative effect on the client. (i) Significant evaluation results recognized as real repercussions of project delay include client and contractor damage, additional expenditures paid, and loss of good corporate image. (ii) The university lost students who would have received capacity and other benefits from the planned development projects.
6. Recommendation
According to the client, contractor, and consultants, “Change to design during construction” was the most critical element in DMU construction time overruns. They agreed that the most significant factors of time overrun as a result of the design change during construction were a high level of quality requirements, incomplete drawings and project information, contract modification, government obstruction, client-contractor working relationship, late payment, and project location. Based on the study’s findings, the authors propose that clients, contractors, and consultants be compelled.(1)Minimizing design changes, enhancing the quality of design plans, and stressing project completion date meetings; efficiently communicating through paperwork, such as drawings and specifications(2)The design and documentation should be of high quality, with tight application to the construction project(3)They must make all required decisions before project execution and avoid making additional decisions after project completion(4)The recommended remedies for late design review and approval were integration between the client and the consultant, the early beginning of design review, immediate response for design approval, competent and experienced designers, experience exchange, and so on.
Overall, the key causes, impacts, and mitigation strategies of public construction project delays in Ethiopia have followed the same patterns. As a result, this research will assist the government in overcoming it.
Data Availability
All data used to support the finding of the study were included in the article.
Conflicts of Interest
There are no known conflicts of financial interest or personal relationships that could have appeared to affect the work disclosed in this study, according to the authors.
Acknowledgments
The Debre Markos Institute of Technology provided funding for this study (award numbers DMiT/R/C/TT/UIL/107/13/20 and DMiT/R/C/TT/UIL/26/25/21). The Institutes’ funding is warmly acknowledged.