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The Effects of Design Information on Reliability of Progress and Cost Estimates of Construction Projects: The Case of Two Civil Engineering Projects

Received: 23 September 2016     Accepted: 7 October 2016     Published: 1 November 2016
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Abstract

Continuing national disquiet concerning the late completion of road construction projects, high-cost overruns and premature failures of roads partly attributed to inadequate design information is quite worrying. The paper investigated the effects of design information on reliability of progress and cost estimates on two road construction projects in the Brong Ahafo and the Upper East Regions of Ghana. A case study was conducted on the two projects which involved the content analysis of the design documents, interviews with the industry players and personal observations. The study revealed among other things such as lack of design plans before tendering, disparities between design drawing information and Bill of Quantity (BoQ) information, inadequate site investigation and delays in taking decision on variations, affected the smooth progress of these projects. It is recommended that all the stakeholders in the road construction industry treat road design and its related matters with the maximum attention it deserves to curtail the huge avoidable cost the nation is incurring.

Published in American Journal of Civil Engineering (Volume 4, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajce.20160406.19
Page(s) 326-336
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Design Information, Bill of Quantity, Reliability of Progress, Cost Estimates, Construction Projects, Ghana

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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Stephen Agyeman, Eric Kwaku Asare, Emmanuel Nsiah Ankomah. (2016). The Effects of Design Information on Reliability of Progress and Cost Estimates of Construction Projects: The Case of Two Civil Engineering Projects. American Journal of Civil Engineering, 4(6), 326-336. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20160406.19

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    ACS Style

    Stephen Agyeman; Eric Kwaku Asare; Emmanuel Nsiah Ankomah. The Effects of Design Information on Reliability of Progress and Cost Estimates of Construction Projects: The Case of Two Civil Engineering Projects. Am. J. Civ. Eng. 2016, 4(6), 326-336. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20160406.19

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    AMA Style

    Stephen Agyeman, Eric Kwaku Asare, Emmanuel Nsiah Ankomah. The Effects of Design Information on Reliability of Progress and Cost Estimates of Construction Projects: The Case of Two Civil Engineering Projects. Am J Civ Eng. 2016;4(6):326-336. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20160406.19

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajce.20160406.19,
      author = {Stephen Agyeman and Eric Kwaku Asare and Emmanuel Nsiah Ankomah},
      title = {The Effects of Design Information on Reliability of Progress and Cost Estimates of Construction Projects: The Case of Two Civil Engineering Projects},
      journal = {American Journal of Civil Engineering},
      volume = {4},
      number = {6},
      pages = {326-336},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajce.20160406.19},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20160406.19},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajce.20160406.19},
      abstract = {Continuing national disquiet concerning the late completion of road construction projects, high-cost overruns and premature failures of roads partly attributed to inadequate design information is quite worrying. The paper investigated the effects of design information on reliability of progress and cost estimates on two road construction projects in the Brong Ahafo and the Upper East Regions of Ghana. A case study was conducted on the two projects which involved the content analysis of the design documents, interviews with the industry players and personal observations. The study revealed among other things such as lack of design plans before tendering, disparities between design drawing information and Bill of Quantity (BoQ) information, inadequate site investigation and delays in taking decision on variations, affected the smooth progress of these projects. It is recommended that all the stakeholders in the road construction industry treat road design and its related matters with the maximum attention it deserves to curtail the huge avoidable cost the nation is incurring.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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    T1  - The Effects of Design Information on Reliability of Progress and Cost Estimates of Construction Projects: The Case of Two Civil Engineering Projects
    AU  - Stephen Agyeman
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajce.20160406.19
    T2  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Civil Engineering
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    AB  - Continuing national disquiet concerning the late completion of road construction projects, high-cost overruns and premature failures of roads partly attributed to inadequate design information is quite worrying. The paper investigated the effects of design information on reliability of progress and cost estimates on two road construction projects in the Brong Ahafo and the Upper East Regions of Ghana. A case study was conducted on the two projects which involved the content analysis of the design documents, interviews with the industry players and personal observations. The study revealed among other things such as lack of design plans before tendering, disparities between design drawing information and Bill of Quantity (BoQ) information, inadequate site investigation and delays in taking decision on variations, affected the smooth progress of these projects. It is recommended that all the stakeholders in the road construction industry treat road design and its related matters with the maximum attention it deserves to curtail the huge avoidable cost the nation is incurring.
    VL  - 4
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Author Information
  • Department of Civil Engineering, Sunyani Polytechnic, Sunyani, Ghana

  • Department of Building Technology, Sunyani Polytechnic, Sunyani, Ghana

  • Department of Building Technology, Sunyani Polytechnic, Sunyani, Ghana

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