THE USE OF VALUE ENGINEERING FOR EFFICIENT ROAD PROJECT DELIVERY AND PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The research applied Value Engineering technique on three selected road projects in Abuja, Nigeria with the aim of preventing delay and controlling cost. The VE for this study comprised four phases: Information, Speculation/Creativity, Evaluation, Development and Presentation phase. The work commenced with necessary data collection and was completed with a predictive model VE (reduce cost, reduce time and increase quality) for improving road project performance. The work considered all the influencing factors that affects project time. The targeted respondents were clients, consultants, contractors, sub-contractors, site-engineers, project-managers and road users. In all, one hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were distributed to randomly selected respondents. out of which only one hundred and twenty three (123)) questionnaires were found consistent and valid for use in this research. Experimental field data were collected from the three road construction sites. Relative Importance Index (RII) and Severity Index were used to carry out ranking analysis. Results from this study showed that delay or road project abandonment is majorly caused by adopting wrong methods at tendering and awarding stage, awarding projects to inexperienced contractors, use of inappropriate/inadequate resources, and non-mobilization of needed resources within the approved time frame. The Value Engineering prediction models for cost and time management were developed, tested and validated. The models were found suitable for use in controlling project cost and preventing unnecessary delay in road projects, while maintaining standards as desired for the project