DELAY COMPLETION OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ROAD PROJECTS IN NIGERIA: A CASE STUDY OF THREE STATES

Abstract

Delay in road construction projects is considered one of the most common and serious problems plaguing the Nigerian construction industry given the number and the value of the road projects involved.Yet, research is scarce on this issue; hence this research was conducted to investigate the problems. The potential causes of Untimely Completed Construction Road Projects (UCRP)were summarized into 41 items to be rated in an industry wide questionnaire survey. The questionnaire also includes an open-ended question on suggestions to solveUCRP. One hundred and eleven (111) questionnaire responses were received from the one hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires distributed to the Permanent Secretary of Works, Directors of Works, Director of Road Projects, Federal Road Maintenance (FERMA) Directors, Supervisors, Contractors and Consultants. Subsequently, a series of ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain detailed opinions from experienced players in the industry concerning the causes of UCRP and how to solve the problems. Quantitative analyses include ranking of the 41 potential causes of UCRP with Spearman’s ranking correlation between different groups of respondents and factor analysis with Cronbach’s α reliability analysis. The results of the open ended question on solving UCRP and the results of the semi-structured interviews were analysed. The Spearman’s correlations between client/owner and consultant, client/owner and contractor/supplier, client/owner and others, consultant and contractor/supplier, consultant and others, and contractor/supplier and others are 0.904, 0.936, 0.930, 0.907, 0.896, and 0.943 respectively. The Spearman’s correlations between government official and client/owner, consultant, contractor/supplier, and others are 0.367, 0.361, 0.393 and 0.447 respectively. It was concluded that all correlations are significant at the 1% significance level except for the correlation between consultant and government official which is significant at the 5% significance level.