Factors Affecting Cost and Time Control in Construction Projects

The quest of construction project stakeholders is effective control of cost and time. Accomplishing this quest however, remains a difficult task. This study examines factors affecting cost and time control of construction projects with a view to proposing recommendations that could assist stakeholders to achieve enhanced cost and time performance of construction projects. A survey of professionals managing construction projects in Lagos, Nigeria was conducted. Structured questionnaire was developed and administered to eighty (80) managers of construction projects who were randomly selected from a sample frame of One-hundred (100) construction project contractors. A total of fifty-two (52) questionnaires were retrieved representing 62% response rate. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 20.0, descriptive and inferential statistical tools including, bar chart, mean, minimum and maximum values, frequency tables, T-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed to analyse collected data. The results of the analysis revealed that the top three significant factors affecting cost and time control of construction projects are; design and documentation issues, poor labour productivity and financial resource management. This study recommends the avoidance of poor work quality in construction activities. Also, project and construction managers should focus on project tripod constraints of cost, quality and time while workers hired and deployed on construction projects should be adequately skilled in order to achieve desired cost and time performance.