Causes of Delay in Ethiopian Industrial Park Construction Projects: The Case of Kilinto and Bole Lemi-II Industrial Parks

Abstract

Construction industry is one of the largest industries in the world and it is also one of the fastest growing sector in Ethiopia. Recently, delay of construction projects is becoming common in Ethiopia, including mega projects such as Industrial Parks Projects. The title of this study is “Causes of Delay in Ethiopian Industrial Park Construction Projects: The case of kilinto and Bole Lemi-II Industrial Parks”.  The general objective of the study was to identify the causes of delay in construction projects of Ethiopian Industrial parks. The unit of analysis for the study was managements of the client, consultant and two contractors who were directly assigned for the aforementioned projects. Purposive sampling technique was used and 14 respondents were selected from the unit of analysis. Primary data were collected by using questionnaire survey and interview questions. Secondary data was also collected from different books, journals, thesis papers as well as project documents. Then data were analyzed using descriptive and qualitative analysis methods. In analyzing data from questionnaire survey, relative importance index(RII) was used and factors of delay were ranked based on that result. The analysis result of the questionnaire survey indicates that Unrealistic/short project time, Contract scope change/modification by the client and Untimely variation and additional work orders by the consultant are the top three delay factors in Kilinto and Bole Lemi-I IPs. In addition to the factors of delay which were included in the questionnaire survey, other delay factors were identified from the interview questions. Some of them include lack of experienced personnel of client and consultant during the design phase, political interference, poor scheduling and poor coordination among stakeholders. Finally, the researcher put important recommendations which can help to minimize delay in IP projects. One of these, was avoiding political interference in key technical decision makings like deciding the project time which was the number one delay factor in the two projects.  

Key Words: Industrial Park Construction Project, Construction Delay, Delay Factors, Client, Consultant, Contractor, Relative Importance Index, Unrealistic Project Time