An Evaluation of Risk Factors and their Impact on Road Project

Abstract

Construction projects are generally known to be susceptible to risks. This results in an inability to meet performance targets. This paper assessed the risk factors encountered in the delivery of road projects in Osun State, Nigeria. A questionnaire survey was used to obtain data from all the 146 construction professionals involved in the construction of the 34 road projects executed in the study area. The professionals comprised of 34 Consultant Civil Engineers, 34 Consultants’ Civil Engineers, 34 Consultant Quantity Surveyors, 34 Consultants’ Quantity Surveyors, one project financier and 9 Project Managers, making a total of 146 respondents. Using two-dimensional scaling, the respondents were asked to provide opinions on risk occurrence and their impacts on road projects. The data collected were analysed using mean ranking analysis and student t-test. A further analysis was carried out using factor analysis to reduce the factors impacting road projects into fewer factor components. The results revealed that the risk factors with high extent of occurrence are in the order of change in scope of work, defective design, error and re-work, change in design, delay in availability of design details and unforeseen adverse conditions. Surprisingly, the top ranking risk factors are not the ones with high impact based on the result of the analysis. Using factor analysis, 9 component factors regarding the extent of risk occurrence were obtained and they accounted for 73.73% of the variance explained while 4- component factors were obtained regarding the impact of risk occurrence and they accounted for 46.16% of the variance explained. The study concluded that professionals involved in the delivery of road projects need to be aware of the significant risk factors impacting road projects and put proactive risk management approach in place to deal with them to avoid surprises.
Keywords: Performance, Projects, Risk factors, Risk impact, Road.