EVALUATION OF FACTORS CAUSING UNTIMELY DELIVERY OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

Untimely delivery is one of the biggest problems often experienced in construction projects sites, it is a critical factor that has been researched as a major challenge in construction industry. It is often responsible for turning profitable projects into loss incurring ventures, such as cost overruns, loss of profits, increased overheads, stress, acrimony between parties, litigation and loss of opportunities because resources are tied up. In this study three (Improper Planning, inadequate funding and discontinuity in governance) out of the most common factors causing untimely delivery of road construction projects in Ondo State were evaluated. The objectives were to determine the effect of improper planning, inadequate funding and discontinuity in governance on untimely delivery of road construction projects and make recommendations towards ameliorating untimely delivery of road construction projects. Data were obtained from a focus group comprising clients, the client’s representatives, Civil Engineering Contractors and Consultants, Project managers and other parties in road construction team through a structured Likert scale questionnaire while multiple regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses; The results indicated percentage significant relationship between the variables and alternative hypotheses tested, 19%, 39% and 28% of the factors responsible for untimely delivery of road construction projects were; improper planning, inadequate funding and discontinuity in governance respectively. This implied that inadequate funding is the most critical factor causing untimely delivery of road construction projects in Ondo State followed by discontinuity in governance while improper planning ranked the least. Based on these findings, it is recommended that adequate and timely provision of financial resources which is the hub around everything else evolves and comprehensive economic analysis with financial plans should be in place before contracts are awarded.