A Proposed Model for Variation Order Management in Construction Projects

This study investigates the impact of change orders on the budgets of 43 public construction projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It addresses the research problem of budget fluctuations in construction projects and aims to understand the causes and consequences of change orders. The research employs a comprehensive methodology involving data analysis from these projects to draw meaningful insights. The major findings of the study indicate that approximately 75 % of the change orders could have been avoided with more effective project planning and management. Owners are found to be responsible for around 40 % of the change orders, emphasizing the need for improved collaboration and communication between project teams and owners during the planning phase. Inexperienced contractors contribute to at least 5 % of the change orders, suggesting the importance of evaluating contractor expertise before project awarding. The study also provides two equations for estimating additional funding or surpluses for public projects, taking into account fluctuations in construction material prices. Moreover, it identifies six critical construction materials and trades, such as thermal and moisture protection, site work, concrete work, conveying systems, electrical work, and mechanical work, which have the most significant impact on project budgets. These insights offer valuable guidance for enhancing project planning, mitigating budget overruns, and optimizing cost efficiency in public construction projects.

The success of the Ghanaian public road construction phase and other preconstruction phases have been studied. However, the success of the Ghanaian public road project consultant selection phase has not received any attention, even though it is prone to corruption. The goal of this study is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) that, from the standpoint of a developing country, affect the success of the Ghanaian public road consultant selection phase. Data on the degree to which key success criteria identified in literature have an impact on the success of the Ghanaian public road consultant selection phase from the viewpoints of 156 sector practitioners in Ghana were acquired using a self-administered questionnaire. After that, the relative importance index was used to analyze the data. According to the study, external environmental, project management, and procurement-related factors influence the success of the Ghanaian public road consultant selection phase. The government and organizations that administer public construction projects will now have a better grasp of the CSFs that affect the performance of the Ghanaian public road construction project consultant selection phase and be able to use them as a guide to improving the effective and efficient delivery of public road construction projects. In managing public road projects, the study's findings will be useful to both industry professionals and the Ghanaian government. The study is limited to the consultant selection phase of Ghanaian public road construction projects. Keywords: Critical success factors, construction, consultant selection phase, construction management, relative importance index.

PurposeThe present study employs social network analysis (SNA) to demonstrate the extent to which various building information modeling (BIM) functions can be used to address significant issues faced by the Tanzanian public sector construction projects.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted secondary data obtained from a comprehensive literature review on core BIM functions and the underlying issues faced by the Tanzanian public sector construction projects. This study then adopted SNA for associating the BIM functions with relevant construction issues.FindingsFor Objective 1, the findings revealed that BIM can address 68% of significant issues faced by the Tanzanian public sector construction projects. For Objective 2, the findings revealed that the identified functions mainly addressed issues in the early phases of the project. Finally, for Objective 3, the most effective function was “spatial coordination.”Research limitations/implicationsThis literature-based study does not fully capture both the current contextual issues faced by the industry and the BIM capability of stakeholders involved. In addition, this research does not distinguish between public project size and type which can influence the types of issues faced and consequently the use of BIM function. Accordingly, the research presented in this study needs to be complemented by on-the-ground feedback of industry stakeholders and needs to investigate how project size and type impacts the types of issues that emerge and the use of BIM.Practical implicationsWith respect to practice, the findings of the present study highlight key BIM functions practitioners can begin to target.Social implicationsIn Tanzania, public sector construction projects contribute greatly to social development of Tanzania's population. Owing to the current state of public sector projects underperforming and the negative impact the projects have on the country's development, an intervention measure such as BIM has the potential to enhance the effective and efficient delivery of these projects and thereby promote the social development of the country's population.Originality/valueWith respect to theory, this study demonstrates how core functions of BIM can be mapped with various construction-related issues in order to evaluate the efficacies of the BIM-based investments for improving overall performance in the public sector projects. With respect to practice, the method illustrated in the present study can be applied by policymakers and practitioners to identify core BIM functions to target to address pressing contextual issues faced by public sector projects in the respective contexts.

The construction industry is known for its underperformance. Globally, construction projects are often delayed and completed above-estimated budgets because of inferior works and contract variations. These in turn negatively affect the goals set by public sector client. Many studies aim to establish factors for successful construction projects that include public road construction projects. However, challenges remain. Using institutional theory, this research focusses on success factors for implementing public road construction projects in Uganda. Loss of funds in such projects significantly affects and stalls the implementation process. This study is cross-sectional and structured self-administered questionnaires are used with Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) data analysis by Smart-PLS3 subsequently conducted. The findings reveal that professionalism, monitoring activities, familiarity with regulatory framework; perceived inefficiency of regulatory framework and compliance with these frameworks significantly enhances successful implementation of public road construction projects. However, sanctions on staff and contractors’ resistance to non-compliance are insignificant predictors. Governments should emphasize and embark on improving monitoring mechanisms and staff familiarity with public procurement regulatory frameworks to avoid manipulations by unethical project stakeholders especially on contract cost variation during implementation. These regulatory frameworks should be written in a less technical language that is easily interpreted by stakeholders. Recruitment of qualified staff is paramount.

Any construction practitioner fundamental goal is to complete the projects within estimated duration and budgets, and expected quality targets. However, time and cost overruns are regular and universal phenomenon in construction projects and the construction projects in Malaysia has no exemption from the problems of time overrun and cost overrun. In order to accomplish the successful completion of construction projects on specified time and within planned cost, there are various factors that should be given serious attention so that issues such as time and cost overrun can be addressed. This paper aims to construct a framework for the causes of time overrun and cost overrun in construction projects of Malaysia. Based on the relevant literature review, causative factors of time overrun and cost overrun in Malaysian construction projects are summarized and the theoretical frameworks of the causes of construction time overrun and cost overrun is constructed. The developed frameworks for construction time and cost overruns based on the existing literature will assist the construction practitioners to plan the efficient approaches for achieving successful completion of the projects.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of risk management on the successful completion of construction projects in public primary schools in Dodoma Urban District, Tanzania. Methodology: Explanatory research design were used. Structured questionnaires were used for data collection from 320 respondents who were selected using simple random sampling technique. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analysis. Findings: The study concluded that effective risk management through identification, analysis and regular monitoring is key to successful construction projects. These elements work together to address challenges, ensure timely completion, control costs, improve quality, and promote accountability and transparency in project management. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study concluded that effective risk identification, risk analysis and regular risk monitoring enhance timely completion and improve the overall quality of construction projects. The findings contribute to theory by empirically strengthening Risk Management Theory and demonstrating its applicability in public primary school construction projects. They further inform policy by highlighting the need for institutionalized risk assessment guidelines, capacity-building and consistent monitoring frameworks within local government construction procedures. In practice, the study provides actionable insights for project managers and contractors to adopt structured, proactive risk management approaches that minimize delays, cost overruns and quality shortcomings.

This research work was tries to study the risk management practice on public building construction projects and aims to identify the level that use of risk management practice especially in the public building. The data collection method was a combination of interview and questionnaire. Samples were purposively selected from clients, consultants, and contractors representatives who are now actively participating in public building construction projects. For this study, the data was collected using both primary and secondary sources. Depending on the data that was gathered from the respondent to test the level of awareness, identifying the Risk that affect the performance of public building construction project and major risk management practice on public building construction project are considered and the RII was used to rank the factors. This data was analyzed using SPSS of version 22 to perform descriptive statistics. A total of 75 questionnaires were targeted to be distributed and out of those 50 which is 66.67% are successfully responded. The finding from this study revealed that, about (52%) of the project progress is lagging from the schedule. Regarding the awareness of the risk management, (94%) of the respondents where confirmed that they have awareness of risk management ideologies and they are confident enough to implement their knowledge while, (6%) of them have no concept about the risk management. The top five risks that affect the performance of construction project have been identified and ranked. Accordingly; market condition, unexpected inflation, local taxes, inadequate production of raw materials, and the economic condition of country are the top five identified associated project risks.

Despite the vast research on construction projects management issues in the Middle-East, little is known about client involvement in public projects. This article presents a study on identifying significant factors affecting client participation performance in public construction projects in the Sultanate of Oman. The study was conducted in quantitative approach where the data was collected through questionnaire survey. The collected data was analysed statistically to determine the ranking of the identifiedfactors based on the degree of involvement in the project. The study found that the handover phase had the highest client’s participation, while the operations and maintenance phase had the lowest client’s participation among all the five construction phases. The low client participation in any project has an undesirable influence on the projects’ overall outcomes. Consequently, this condition has harmed the time of completion of construction projects in the Sultanate of Oman. This condition is also the main reason for the quality problems in construction projects in Oman.

Evaluation of insurance policies in the Saudi Arabian construction contracts

A construction project is a designed product made up of labors, materials, and installations in the project positioned on the ground and may include the underground and ground section, and the section in water or on the water surface. It is a civil, industrial, transport, agricultural and rural development, infrastructure, or some other. A key phase in the life cycle of these construction projects is the implementation when building products are made directly with workers, equipment, materials, and managers. If there is a lack of management experience, information, and problem-solving solutions to tackle the risks faced by contractors, especially foreign ones, will fail in controlling the project’s cost. This study was conducted with investigations, discussions, and evaluation of the factors that lead to cost overruns in the construction projects of international contractors in Vietnam. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed that those factors that influence cost overruns these construction projects fall into five general groups, including factors related to (i) the owners, (ii) the foreign contractors, (iii) the subcontractors and suppliers, (iv) state management, and (v) the project itself. Besides, the study proposes solutions to limit cost overruns in construction projects and improve the profitability of international contractors in Vietnam.

Construction projects are getting progressively complex and their scales are getting sophisticated. Along these lines, it is getting more problematic to finish the projects inside planned cost limits. In Oromia public building construction projects these problems were raised as a typical challenge. Hence, evaluation of factors affecting the accuracy of cost estimation in public projects was the aim of this study. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized for information assortment. Relative Importance Index (RII) was utilized for information investigation. Totally sixty -two variables were investigated and the best five most significant were selected by this assessment based on the average view of respondents. These significant factors are; Material price/accessibility /source /quality /imports, Experience and ability of the consultant, Variability in the Economy of the country, and financial conditions of client. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients (rho) investigation was conducted by the assistance of SPSS 20 version for a testing level of connections among respondents on the positioning of the factors affecting the accuracy of cost estimation. Spearman’s rank correlation results were 0.823 among Clients and Consultants, 0.813 among clients and contractors, and 0.802 among Consultants and Contractors. The outcome shows that the rate of the rank correlations was a high positive number, which implies there is a positive connection between them on the ranking of factors disturbing the accurateness of cost estimation in public building construction projects in western Oromia.

It is increasingly common that public construction projects are procured and managed with explicit intentions to establish closer collaboration between partners. Opportunities for negotiation and the freedom to choose partners are more restricted in a public setting than in a private one. Thus, many relational requirements that are generally considered essential to trust-based collaboration are more difficult to fulfil. Based on two case studies from the Netherlands and one from Sweden, we investigate how this formalized context, including formal partnering models to support relationship management, influences relational development in public sector construction contracts. Collaboration is primarily needed in projects where uncertainty is high and exchange conditions cannot be comprehensively defined. The contractual ambiguities, together with the limited opportunities for pre-contractual sense-making and relationship-building, imply that the early post-contractual phase is of significantly higher importance in public projects than in private ones. After signing a contract, it is important that the parties use the interpretive flexibility to signal trust and commitment and also that joint learning processes are organized to resolve ambiguities and enable joint learning. Formal partnering models are helpful in structuring this interaction, but also incentive arrangements may be important in shaping interaction and signalling trust.

Moreover, there is an increasing amount of literature covering specific geotechnical risk analysis and management topics. Examples of these are the difference between unsafe geotechnical certainty and safe geotechnical uncertainty (Barends, 2005), the role of the human factor in achieving geotechnical reliability (Bea, 2006), objective and subjective ways of geotechnical risk classification (Altabba et al., 2004), and contractual allocation of geotechnical risk (Essex, 2007).

Delays and disruption are a common issue in both community and personal building programs The problem exists all throughout the world, but it is particularly prevalent in Iraq, where millions of dollars are squandered each time as a outcome. Delays and interruptions may have serious consequences not just for Iraq's construction plans, but also for the country's economic and social status. While numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the factors driving delays and disruption in Iraqi construction projects, slight consideration has been given to by what means project management implements and approaches have affected the occurrence of project delays and disruption. After analyzing the crucial reasons for delays and instability in public and private construction projects in Iraq, this paper aims to improve the recording and recommendations using Project Supervision concepts. A thorough investigation was conducted to identify the critical factors that are causing delays and disruptions in construction projects in Iraq's public and private sectors and present project management application procedures in order to establish recommendations to successfully reduce work disruptions and instability in Iraq This paper identifies the top crucial factors contributing to construction project delays and disruptions in Iraq. It further identifies project management Tools and techniques that, when used appropriately, have the potential to address the major causes of delays and interruptions. Following that, a new set of guidelines for applying Project Management methodologies and strategies to address the identified delay and disruption issues is provided, with the objective of aiding practitioners in minimizing the possibility for construction delays and interruption in Iraqi projects.

This study aims to identify critical success factors for public sector construction projects in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research strategy through semi-structured questionnaires to collect data from Lagos State Ministry of Works construction experts. A total of 66 usable questionnaires were retrieved and used for the analysis based on their information. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.745, and the Spearman-rank's coefficient was 0.802, indicating the high internal consistency of the questionnaire items. A quick analysis reveals that the most critical aspects of public construction projects are political considerations, the project manager's leadership qualities, an appropriately allocated budget, and efficient team management. Effective procurement process and stakeholder involvement were found to significantly impact the success of public sector building project delivery, while the leadership skills of the project managers, effective communication management, effective coordination of project activities, and efficient project delivery did not. This study sheds light on the most common reasons these projects fail and offer a wide-ranging set of recommendations for fixing them.