TOSSA COLLEGE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

M.SC IN PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

ANALYSING CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DELAY IN

AWASH -KOMBOLCHA- HARA GEBEYA RAILWAY

RESEARCH PROPOSAL ASSIGNMENT

BY

MAHLET SHAREW MEKONNEN

SUBMITTED TO: - Kelemework G.(PhD)

June, 2022

Dessie Ethiopia
 1. RESEARCH PROBLEM

Delays in a Study and Design or construction projects is counted as a common problem worldwide
and became a cause for projects completion with huge cost overrun (requiring higher budget than
estimated), extended completion time, inferior quality deliverables and contract termination. In
construction delay could be defined as the time over run either beyond completion date specified in
contract or beyond the date that the parties agreed upon for delivery of a project. In recent time it
was an accepted phenomena to have delays in construction projects completion time.

For the client, construction delay is a:

 Loss of revenue,
 Lack of productivity, ` 1
 Dependency on existing facilities,
 Creates public grievance etc.

For the contractor, construction delay is:

 The higher costs,

 Longer work duration,
 Increased labor cost,
 Higher material and equipment costs etc. Completion of construction projects on
Specified time or time agreed by the parties indicates their efficiency. The delays in construction
projects happen because of various factors or causes. These causes lead to the delay in construction
completion, and this delay ultimately leads to negative effects on the construction project.

In Ethiopian construction practice, it is very rare that construction projects are completed on the
time specified or agreed upon. There are many critical factors that cause construction delays in
Ethiopia are;

 difficulties in financing project by a contractor

 Escalation of the material price
 In effective project planning
 Scheduling or resource management
  Delay in progress payment for completed work

Therefore, this study is initiated to find out causes and effects of delay in Awash kombolcha
woldia hara gebeya railway

2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

2.1General objectives
The general objective of this study is to assess the major causes and Impacts of delays on Awash
Kombolcha Woldia Hara Gebya Railway.

2.2 Specific Objectives

 To explore construction project delays related to project study and design document
Preparation works.
 To briefly survey major potential Causes and Impacts of delays from different
Stakeholder’s perspective.
 To identify the success factors which are most influential in avoiding or preventing delay
factors

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following are the research questions of this study:

 What are Client’s related factors of major causes and effects of construction Delay?
 What are Consultant’s related factors of major causes and effects of construction
Delay?
 What are Contractor’s related factors of major causes and effects of construction
Delay?
 What are the effects caused due to delay in project performance?
 4. LITRATURE REVIEW
4.1 General Explanation
Construction project sometimes just referred to as a project is the organized process f constructing
renovating, refurbishing building, structure or infrastructure. A construction project‟ is a high
value, time bound, special construction mission of creating a construction facility or service, with
predetermined performance objectives defined in terms of quality specification, completion time,
budgeted cost and other specified constraints (Chitkara, 2011).Time and Cost are among the five
main parameters that can sufficiently define a construction project. Other parameters are scope,
quality and resources.
The five parameters are interactive, that is, each parameter is a function of other. The evaluation
and balancing of interrelationship among the five project parameters is a complicated process.
However, in a given project, the scope and quality of work in terms of quantity and specifications
are specified and these parameters are not subjected to change (unless scope changes
substantially). Resources and costs are co-related. Therefore, for a given quality, in such situation,
time, cost and scope are core parameters. These parameters are interlinked and must be kept in
balance to achieve project objective efficiently and effectively within changing environments
(Chitkara, 2011).
The construction project consists of three phases namely: Conception/designing, bid and
Construction/build (DBB). Timely completion of projects is an indicator of efficient construction
industry. Construction time often serves as a benchmark for assessing the performance of a project
and the efficiency of the project organization. A project is said to be successful on timely
completion. The time required to complete construction of projects is often more than specified
time in Contract. These ‘overruns‘ or, time extensions happens due to many reasons, such as
designer changes or errors, economic conditions, resource availability and performance of project
parties.
According to Chitkara (2011), the main controllable causes of the projects‟ Delay and cost
overruns include but are not limited to the following:
 Inadequate project formulation: Poor field investigation, inadequate project
information, bad cost estimates, lack of experience, inadequate project formulation and
feasibility analysis, poor project appraisal leading to incorrect investment decisions.
  Poor planning for implementation: Inadequate time plan, inadequate resource plan,
inadequate equipment supply plan, inter-linking not anticipated, poor organization poor
cost planning.
 Lack of proper contract planning and management: Improper pre-contract actions, poor
post-award contract management.
Lack of project management during execution: Insufficient and ineffective working, delays,
changes in scope of work and location, law and order

4.2 Definition of Delay

Definition of delay stated by various scholars in different ways. Delays are defined as vents or
occurrences that affect the time required to complete a particular task. Assaf and Al-Hejji (2006)
defined construction delay as the time over run either beyond completion date specified in a
contract or beyond the date that parties agree upon for delivery of a project .

4.3 Causes of Delays

Construction delay is considered to be one of the most recurring problems in the construction
industry and it has an adverse effect on project success in terms of cost, time, quality, and safety.
There are several factors that cause delay in construction. Delay may be caused by Clients or
Owners, Consultants and Designers, Contractors, Sub-contractors and Suppliers.
In a study of the significant factors that cause delay of construction projects (Alaghbari, Kadir,
Salim and Ernawati, 2007), classified the factors into four major groups stated as follows;
 Contractor factor,
 Consultant/Designer factor,
 Client factors and
 External factors.
Financial problems, shortage of materials and poor site management practices were considered the
top most factors. Client related factors included delayed payments, slow decision-making, frequent
change orders, bid award for lowest price and contract scope changes. The most important factors
by consultant were provision of incomplete design, poor supervision, slowness to give instructions
and lack of experience. External causes identified included shortage of materials availability, poor
site conditions and lack of equipment and tools in the market.
 4.4 Effects of Delays
The desire to finish a project on time, under the planned budget, and with the highest quality is
common goals for all contracting parties, including the Owner, Contractor and Consultant. Delay
usually result in losses of one form or another for everyone.
Cost, time, and quality have proven their importance as the primary success factors of a project.
According to Ahmed, et al delays on construction project are a universal phenomenon. They are
usually accompanied by cost overruns. Delay has a negative effect on clients, contractors, and
consultants in terms of growth in adversarial relationships, mistrust, litigation, arbitration, and
cash-flow problems.

5. METHODOLOGY
5.1 Location of Case Study

The Awash Woldia Hara Gebeya Railway Project is a new railway line being constructed between
Awash and Woldia, Ethiopia. Project owner Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) is investing
$1.7bn in the project. Construction of the new line commenced in February 2015 and is expected
to be completed in 2017. The new railway line will connect northern and central Ethiopia. It will
also link the country’s northern and eastern transportation networks.

The Awash Woldia / Hara Gebeya railway line will involve the construction of 400km of new rail
line, 40km maintenance lines and 18km station lines. It also includes construction of new tunnels,
three terminal stations with two platforms, and six intermediate stations with a single platform.
The total length of the railway line will subsequently be 447km. In June 2012, ERC signed an
engineering, procurement and construction contract worth $1.7bn for the Awash Woldia/Hara
Gebeya railway project with Yapi Merkezi, a company based in Turkey. The contractual terms
mandate to complete the construction of the new line within 42 months.

5.2 Research Design

The methodology considered and adopted for this research work focus on literature review and,
structured questionnaire survey will designed and employed to assess the knowledge and practice
to analyze cause and effects of delays in Awash –Kombolcha- Woldia- Hara Gebeya Railway.
 It will be uses a mixed research method (both quantitative and qualitative methods) in the data
collection process.
 The quantifiable responses will analyze through a quantitative method as the name implies.
 The qualitative data will gives more emphasis to the non-quantifiable responses and it
Will be chose due to its flexible nature.
Finally, based on the obtained data and results of the analysis, conclusions and recommendations
will provide.
5.3 Data Source
Both primary and secondary data are obtained using different data collection methods and
instruments. The source for primary data is the sample group which is staff members. Secondary data
on the other hand will be obtained through the use of published and unpublished documents.

5.4 sampling Technique

Random sampling was used to select respondents from the client, consultants and contractors.
According to Walliman (2005), purposive sampling is a useful sampling method which allows
a researcher to get information from a sample of the population that one thinks knows most
about the subject matter due to this, all selected respondents are randomly selected from those
experts involved in the case study project.

6 RESEARCH PLAN

6.1 Work Plan

No List of activities
April May June July August September October November
1. Literature review

2. Preliminary survey
3. Questionnaire preparation
4. Identifying respondents
5. Conduct the actual survey
6. Collection of secondary
data
7. Data entry
8. Data analysis and write up

9. report writing

10. Final Submission

6.2 Budget Plan

6.2.1 Labour cost

Item Unit Quantity Unit price Total (birr)

Transport Birr - - 1,000
Enumerators and Birr - - 9,000
Safety equipment
For supervision Birr - -
1,000

Sub-total Birr - 11,000

Stationery Materials and Miscellaneous Costs

Ite Unit Quantity Unit price Total (Birr)

m
Re- writable CD Number 10 10 100
Disk
Printing Packet 5 200 1000
paper
Flash disk Pieces 2 250 500
Field note Number 2 30 60
book
Pen Packet 2 250 500
Digital Number 1 600 600
camera
Photo Page 3000 1 3000
copy
Printin Page 3500 1 3500
g
Sub- 9,260
total

Communication fee

Ite Unit Total (Birr)

m
Telephone Birr 1,000
Internet service by purchasing mobile Birr 2,000
card
Total 3000

Budget Summary

Item Unit Total (birr)

Labor cost Birr 11,000

Stationery Birr 9,260

Communication fee Birr 3,000
Grand Total Birr 23,260 Birr
 7 REFERANCE

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