scholarly journals Key Causes of Variation Orders in Public Construction Projects in South-South Zone of Nigeria: An Explanatory Factor Analysis

2020 ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ercan Erdis

The current public procurement law (Law No. 4734) was established in Turkey in 2003. The current law has fundamental differences from the previous one, Law No. 2886, in that the current law's main objective is to increase the effective use of public resources. Although the current law was enacted nine years ago, no in-depth research has been undertaken related to the extent of public savings. Thus, the aim of this research is to analyze the performance of public investments for construction with respect to their success in achieving on time and within budget completion. Additionally, a comparison between the completion duration and budget of construction projects undertaken under the current and the previous law is presented. To achieve these goals, historical contract documents addressing 878 and 575 public construction projects undertaken under two laws, respectively, were analyzed. In this context, the data mining method, including decision trees, artificial neural network, and support vector machines, was applied to predict the duration and cost deviations of the construction projects during the tender process, and the results were compared. It was demonstrated that the current law has contributed substantially towards the completion of the projects within estimated or envisaged durations and costs. The findings of this research can be generalized to countries with similar economical and organizational structures with Turkey.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benviolent Chigara ◽  
Tirivavi Moyo

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of construction professionals relative to factors that affect the delivery of optimum health and safety (H&S) on construction projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a quantitative design which entailed the distribution of a web-based questionnaire among construction professionals, namely, architects, construction/project managers, engineers, H&S managers and quantity surveyors working for contractors and construction consultants in Zimbabwe. The data were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics. Factor analysis was used to reveal interrelated significant sets of factors affecting the delivery of optimum H&S. Findings Factor analysis revealed nine components/factors: change and innovation-related, monitoring and enforcement-related, production-related, access to information and health service-related, on-site facilities and welfare-related, risk assessment and mitigation-related, job security and funding-related, cost-related and COVID-19 risk perception-related factors as the significant factors affecting the delivery of optimum H&S during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe. Research limitations/implications The results highlighted the need for social dialogue among construction stakeholders to support initiatives that will enhance the delivery of H&S on construction projects. Construction stakeholders may find the results useful in highlighting the areas that need improvement to protect workers’ H&S during the pandemic. However, the small sample limits the generalisability of the results to construction sectors in other regions. Originality/value The study investigated factors affecting the delivery of optimum H&S during the COVID-19 to inform interventions to enhance H&S.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamideh Mahdaviazad ◽  
Narges Roustaei ◽  
Masoumeh Beigom Masoumpour ◽  
Mohammad Reza Razeghinejad

Author(s):  
Chris Myers Asch ◽  
George Derek Musgrove

This chapter describes the founding of Washington, D.C., as the capital of the United States. The area that became Washington was a fully functioning slave society, and the city that grew atop those fields incorporated slavery into every aspect of life. From its inception Washington embodied the contradiction endemic to America itself, the paradoxical juxtaposition of freedom and slavery that bedeviled the nation and ultimately led to the Civil War. Enslaved people worked on public construction projects, they were bought and sold within sight of the Capitol, they drove the hacks that crisscrossed the city, and they waited on the men who ran the nation. Early Washington was a Southern city that was immersed in slavery and benefited immensely from it. Another contradiction embedded into the fabric of the city was that its citizens lacked democracy’s basic unit of currency: the right to vote. The city became a political colony, a district whose fate rested not with the local people who called it home but with the national political leaders who resided there temporarily.


Author(s):  
Andreas Økland ◽  
Nils O. E. Olsson

Scope management in the form of reduction lists was integrated in the quality assurance scheme for Norwegian public projects in 2001. This article presents findings on the actual use of reduction lists for major public construction projects Project representatives were contacted to obtain information about the actual use of pre-defined potential scope reductions. Eight of the 14 studied projects did not implement any of the predefined reductions. Six projects implemented some of the reductions. The scope reductions on the reduction lists are very specific and detailed, unlike general theory on scope management and cost control. However, the findings from the study are in line with the general theory; it was the most general scope and cost reductions that where used in practice. The study subsequently looked into the relationship between scope reductions and sustainability. Although the most frequently observed reduction was of the category “reduced quality or functionality”, sustainability was rarely affected with the notable exception of the railway infrastructure projects.


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