Assessment of delay and cost-overrun in federal road construction project in Abuja

Poor road infrastructure in Nigeria is a significant challenge, just like poverty, insecurity, and unemployment. The construction of road in the country is characterized by numerous challenges throughout the project life cycle. Some of these challenges are project delay and cost overrun, corruption and fraud, faulty contractual process among others. Objectives of this study are to identify factors influencing delays and cost overruns in road construction project, to rank these factors base on their impacts and importance, and to suggest conservative ways to address the future challenges that can result from delays and cost overruns of future road construction projects. The research instruments include in-depth literature review, fieldwork, questionnaire administration, and interview. Inferential statistics such as Relative importance index (RII) and Mean Value techniques were used to analyze collected data. The result of the study identified factors influencing delays and cost overruns in road construction projects as; man related, money-related, machine-related, material related, environmental-related, and method related factors. Analysis using RII and MV ranked man and money related as the highest factors for delay and cost overrun respectively. Hence, the research recommends that the Government should create an enabling environment, making suitable policy for the construction company to operate.