CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DELAY IN OROMIA ROADS CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS PERTINENT TO OROMIA ROADS AUTHORITY ROAD

Many road construction projects have been undertaken throughout the Oromia Regional State as part of the government’s regional development plans. However, it becomes difficult to complete projects in the pre agreed time. One of the critical problems facing these projects was the frequent and lengthy delays that occur. The main objective of this research was to identify the major causes of delays in Oromia roads construction projects pertinent to ORA road projects along with extent of delays and to know the effects of this delay on the performance of projects. The research was undertaken through an intensive literature review and a survey on selected road projects, to know the opinion of client, contractors and consultants. The survey was carried out through a questionnaire survey together with desk study and some focus group discussion. The questionnaire contained questions on delay causing factors revealed by the literature review (35 factors) categorized into four groups. A total of 39 questionnaires from client, contractors, and consultants were collected and a desk study of 10 completed and ongoing road construction projects were analyzed. The identified causes of delay were calculated with Relative Importance Index (RII).The desktop study revealed that all ten of road construction projects experienced delay. The extent of the delays ranged from a minimum of 3% to a maximum of 259% of the agreed contract time. The research revealed that the most contributing factors to delays were: delay to deliver the site (right of way problem), financial problems inspections, equipment availability and failure, suspension of work by owner or contractor and weather conditions were the most delay causing factors of roads construction projects in Oromia pertinent to ORA road projects. Time and budget overrun have been found to the most dominant effects caused by delays in road construction projects in the region. Therefore, in order to minimize delay in road construction projects, the client should make ready the site for work, and the contractor should have work plan comprising of financial resources and should avoid suspension of work that lead for additional time