Study on the factors influencing performance of road construction industry

Abstract

Road development is an important component of the economic development in Sri Lanka. Although respective governments have recognized the importance of improving the road network in the country, expenditure in areas such as defense, multipurpose development projects and decentralized administration has taken priority, resulting in only scanty investment in road development, especially in rural areas. Today, the present government is planning to improve, rehabilitate and develop existing road network by giving equal weightage to both urban and rural areas within a reasonable period of time aiming to facilitate the rapid economic growth which is the top priority of the government. Accordingly, number of road improvement projects has been planned and some of them are in progress. However, it is learned that the majority of these road projects do not perform as expected especially within time, cost and quality standards due to various factors. The study is aimed at identifying the factors affecting the performance of the road construction projects in progress and to suggest practical and appropriate solutions to overcome the prevailing deficiencies in order to improve their performance. Thirty engineers have been selected from the Road Construction Industry to represent the Employer, the Engineer and the Contractor organizations for the study. Individual discussions and focus group discussion have been conducted to gather information. In addition, a well-designed questionnaire has been administered to collect primary data. All thirty engineers responded and completed the questionnaire with additional comments. Number of significant factors influencing the performance of the Road Construction Contracts has been identified. The most significant factors have been well recorded and conclusions were made including the practical solutions to resolve them.