CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Time impacts are inevitable on construction projects, primarily
because of the uniqueness of each project and the limited resources of
time and money that can be spent on planning, executing and delivering
the project.
Time factors are inherent in all of project construction’s
undertakings. Construction projects have long been recognized as
particularly cost, time and risk-laden. Some of the time and cost
factors associated with the construction process are fairly predictable
or identifiable; others may be totally unforeseen. The constructed
project may not perform as anticipated because the owner may have
unrealistic expectations regarding the delivery time of construction
forcing contractors into unrealistic gambles, corner-cutting or
commitments that may not be realistic (Frimpong 2003).
Project success can be defined as meeting goals and objectives as
prescribed in the project plan. A successful project means that the
project has accomplished its technical performance, maintained its
schedule, and remained within budgetary costs. Project management tools
and techniques play an important role in the effective management of a
project. Therefore, a good project management lies in the management
tools and techniques used to manage the project. Project management
involves managing the resources—workers, machines, money, materials and
methods used. Some projects are effectively and efficiently managed
while others are mismanaged, incurring much delay and cost overruns and
negatively affecting the economy (Frimpong 2003).
Assessing construction projects’ delivery time is critical in today’s market-driven economy.
To improve the economy and maximize long-term return on this
public investment, government agencies have recently started utilizing
new types of contracting methods that are designed to achieve multiple
project objectives, including minimizing construction cost and
duration, while maximizing its quality.
In recent years, many departments of transportation, in various
states have started to apply new highway contracting methods,
including: Bidding on time i.e., to encourage competition among
contractors to minimize project duration (Holt et al 2000), Incentive/
disincentive contract clauses that provide financial incentives to
reduce construction duration, Night time construction that seeks to cut
service disruption and project time by requiring contractors to work
during off-peak night time hours, Warranty contracting that attempts to
improve construction quality by making contractors liable for the
performance of the facility after project completion. These new and
emerging contracts place an increasing pressure on decision makers in
the construction industry to search for an optimal/near-optimal
resource utilization plan that minimizes construction time while
maximizing its quality. This creates new and pressing needs for advanced
resource utilization models that are capable of optimizing the
multiple and conflicting objectives of construction time, cost, and
quality.
Significant research advancements have been made in the area of
optimizing construction resource utilization. This led to a number of
optimization models. These models can be classified according to their
optimization objectives into models that attempted to:
• Minimize project time and/or improve resource utilization;
• minimize time and cost for non-repetitive construction using time-cost trade-off analysis
• minimize time and/or cost for repetitive construction
While the above research study seeks to provide
significant contributions to the area of optimizing construction
resource utilization, there has been little or no reported research
focusing on multi objective models for optimizing construction time,
cost, and quality.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Misallocation and misperception of time factor in construction
projects have resulted in the government of Nigeria paying more than
necessary for many projects. Improper time assessment can also cause
additional costs in the form of delays which result in poor
utilization, increasing social and economic costs. Are contractors
using the most appropriate resources to execute projects in Nigeria? Do
they mobilize the needed resources within the approved time frame
allotted to their contracts? What effects do short time periods and/ or
extended time periods have on their project costs? Are there remedies
to these situations?
These are some of the situations that have prompted the researcher
to go deep into the assessment of the cost and time impacts of public
sector construction projects in Nigeria.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The study had the main objective of assessing the effects of
timely delivery of construction projects on the economy of Nigeria, but
specifically it had the following objectives.
- To establish the extent to which time factors have impacted on construction of projects in the public sector in Nigeria.
- To find out the change in the perception of contractors on time effects on public sector construction in Nigeria.
- To find out the relationship between timely delivery of construction projects and the economic development of Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the following research questions were used by the researcher:
- What effects do time factors have on construction of projects in Nigeria?
- Has the perception of contractors on time factors in projects construction changed in recent years?
- What relationship exists between timely delivery of construction projects and economic development in Nigeria?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Ho: There is no significant relationship between timely delivery
of construction projects and economic development of Nigeria.
Hi: There is a significant relationship between timely delivery of construction projects and economic development of Nigeria.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
All construction contracts allocate time between owners and
contractors. Hence the significance of this study would better inform
improved project relationships and communications and enhance
construction administration practices between owners and contractors.
The findings would also enhance and broaden time of wide range of
risks that could materialize during the design, and construction phases
of a project which would subsequently result in better and more
prudent designs specifications.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The researcher will limit the study to the effects of timely
delivery of construction projects on the economy of Nigeria, using the
Fly Over 2 project constructed by Julius Berger in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State
as a case study. Findings and recommendations by the researcher may
not be used for general analysis as the researcher could not assess
numerous construction projects due to time and financial constraints.
1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Construction of projects in the public sector has assumed
significant functions, hence the need for assessment on the cost and
time impacts of construction of projects in order to achieve overall
project objectives. Historical project schedule and duration data is
treated as confidential by Julius Berger Nigeria Plc hence getting data
for this study was very difficult. Data collection and analysis was
therefore limited to the data received from project supervisors in the
field of project construction.
- DEFINITION OF TERMS
- Economy: An economy consists of the economic system in a certain region, comprising the production, distribution or trade, and consumption of goods and services
in that region or country. An economy is the total aggregate sum of
all transactions of value between two agents, such as one individual to
one other individual, or between groups of individual activity, such
as in organizations to other organizations, and between one nation and
another nation.
- Construction: In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking. Normally, the job is managed by a project manager, and supervised by a construction manager, design engineer, construction engineer or project architect.
- Deliverable: Deliverable is a term used in project management to describe a tangible or intangible object produced as a result of the project that is intended to be delivered to a customer
(either internal or external). A deliverable could be a report, a
document, a server upgrade or any other building block of an overall
project.
- Project management: this is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. A project
is a temporary endeavour with a defined beginning and end (usually
time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables),
undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about
beneficial change or added value.
- Time: This is a dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them.
REFERENCES
- Frimpong, Y. (2003). Project management in developing
countries: causes of delay and cost overruns in construction of
groundwater projects. Unpublished Masters Research Project, University
of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
- Holt, G. D., Proverbs, D., and Love, P. E. D. 2000. ‘‘Survey
findings on UK construction procurement: Is it achieving lowest cost,
or value?’’ Asia Pac. Building Construct. Manage. J., 5, 13–20.