Cost escalation and schedule delays in road construction projects in Zambia

The wealth of any nation is gauged by its performance in infrastructure provision through its construction industry. The construction industry is large, volatile, and requires tremendous capital outlays. For developing economies, road construction constitutes a major component of the construction industry. This means that much of the national budget on infrastructure development is channelled to road construction projects. The aim of the study reported in this paper was to identify causes and effects of cost escalation and schedule delays in road construction projects. Using a detailed literature review, structured interviews and questionnaire surveys, the results of the study confirmed the prevalence of cost escalation and schedule delays in road construction projects in Zambia. The study established that bad or inclement weather due to heavy rains and floods, scope changes, environmental protection and mitigation costs, schedule delay, strikes, technical challenges, inflation and local government pressures were the major causes of cost escalation in Zambia’s road construction projects. On the other hand, delayed payments, financial processes and difficulties on the part of contractors and clients, contract modification, economic problems, materials procurement, changes in drawings, staffing problems, equipment unavailability, poor supervision, construction mistakes, poor coordination on site, changes in specifications and labour disputes and strikes were found to be the major causes of schedule delays in road construction projects. Appropriate project management practices are thus required to curb the causes and effects of cost escalation and schedule delays in road construction projects.