Effects Of Delays And Disruption On The Cost Of Building Construction Projects

Conclusions and Recommendations

5.1 Conclusions

The study concludes that there still exist a number of causes of delays and disruptions and their effects put construction projects at great risk that have an effect on their performance. These causes are: design changes, delays in payment to contractors, information delays, funding problems, poor project management, compensation issues and disagreement on the valuation of work done. Similarly the effects of these delays are: time overrun, cost overrun, negative social impact, idling resources and disputes.

It is therefore recommended that adequate construction budget, timely issuing of information, finalization of design and project management skills should be the main focus of the parties in project procurement process.

5.2 Recommendations:

Based on the findings of this research work, it becomes imperative, therefore to make the following recommendations:

1. Clients should evaluate the quality performance of contractors before awarding a contract.
2. All managerial levels should be participated with sensitive and important decision-making
3. Continuous co-ordination and relationship between project participants are required through project life cycle in order to solve problems and ensure success of the project. Employees in construction industries should be more interested with belonging to work to productivity and success of project.
4. Consultants should be more interested with design cost by using multi criteria analysis and choosing the most economic criteria in order to improve their performance.
5. In addition, consultants are recommended to facilitate and quicken orders delivered to contractors to obtain better time performance and to minimize disputes and claims.
6. Contractors should not increase the number of projects that cannot be executed successfully. In addition, contractors should consider political and environmental risk in their cost estimation in order to ensure success of a project.
7. Also, contractors classified as incompetent should be identified for training. They should be trained through workshops on the various construction methods and contract administration. This will ensure the maintenance of a high standard of construction projects.
8. A proper motivation and safety systems should be established for improvement of productivity and success of construction projects.
9. Contractors are recommended to minimize waste rate through project implementation in order to improve cost performance. They should be more interested with conformance to project specification to overcome disputes.
10. Contractors are recommended to be more interested with sequencing of work according to schedule.
11. Contractors should come up with a clear plan and strategy before starting a project. Early project planning and scheduling of labour, equipment and cash, will help to ensure success and sustainable infrastructure.
12. In addition, contractors should have a cost engineer in their projects to control cost successfully.
13. There should be proper coordination and communication among various parties working on the project in order to improve management and a better control of the project.
14. The construction industry should provide quality management guidelines and should be enforced by the consultants on projects. Stakeholders should be committed to quality management and adequate motivation should be given to workers.
15. Much focus should be placed on the factors influencing construction management practice in order to enhance better construction performance and generate confidence within the construction industry.
16. It is recommended to develop human resources in the construction industry through proper and continuous training programs about management of construction projects. These programs can update their knowledge and can assist them to be more familiar with construction management techniques and processes. In addition, it is preferred to develop and improve the managerial skills of engineers in order to improve success of construction projects. All of that can be implemented by offering effective and efficient training courses in scheduling, time, cost, quality, safety, productivity, information systems and management of human resources. These courses will lead to success delivery of construction projects such as availability of resources as planned through project duration, availability of personals with high experience and qualification, proper quality of equipments and raw materials used in project.
17. Adequate construction management training should be given to employee in charge of projects; this would increase the knowledge of employees about different construction management tools and techniques available for appropriate choice. Also construction management professionals should be employed for proper and adequate application of construction management tools and techniques.
18. Clients should set aside funding that is required for the completion of the project long before the contract is placed.
19. Also, for sustainability of construction projects, the quality of materials used in construction projects must not be compromised.
20. To ensure competence of the professionals in construction industry, the Nigeria society of Engineers (NSE), the Council for Relation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the Nigeria institute of building (NIOB), the Nigerian institute of Architects (NIA) and the government should jointly work together.