Abstract
The study examined the mitigating measures employed by contractors in southwest of Nigeria for cost overrun of building projects with a view to determining its adequacy and effectiveness. A mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods was adopted where data pertinent to the study were obtained through questionnaire survey on a sample of 32 project managers of medium sized construction firms selected from the list of 125 contractors on the register of Federation of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors located in South-West Nigeria using Simple Random Sampling method. Additional information was obtained from contracts bills of quantities and programme schedule to complement the data obtained from the questionnaire survey. Contract sums and final sums of building projects between 200 million Naira – 1.7 billion Naira handled by respondents were also collected as secondary data. Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) was employed to analyse the data for descriptive statistics while manual approach was adopted for inferential statistics of t-test. The results obtained revealed that effective site management and supervision with the highest relative importance index (RII) for adequacy of the mitigation measures was at average level and the (RII) for the effectiveness of mitigation measures adopted by contractors was very low. It also revealed that there is significant difference between initial sums and final sums of building projects at 5% significance level where the mitigation measures were taken in to consideration. The study concluded that mitigation measures adopted by contractors have not been adequate and effective in curbing cost overrun of building projects in southwest Nigeria.
Highlights
That construction industry world-wide is be-devilled with cost overrun is reflected in the fact that many construction projects do not achieve their cost objective
A mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods was adopted where data pertinent to the study were obtained through questionnaire survey on a sample of 32 project managers of medium sized construction firms selected from the list of 125 contractors on the register of Federation of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors located in South-West Nigeria using Simple Random Sampling method
The results obtained revealed that effective site management and supervision with the highest relative importance index (RII) for adequacy of the mitigation measures was at average level and the (RII) for the effectiveness of mitigation measures adopted by contractors was very low
Summary
That construction industry world-wide is be-devilled with cost overrun is reflected in the fact that many construction projects do not achieve their cost objective. According to Ade et al (2013) Poor cost performance in construction project is a common problem resulting in significant amount of cost overrun. Cost escalation exists globally over the years and it has not decreased, it appears no learning seems to take place concerning the subject (Flyvbjerg, Holm and Buhl, 2014). As a result of the pivotal position and significance of cost in construction development chain, there had been concerted efforts among the stakeholders and researchers to curb overrun of cost on construction projects. Despite the invention of various project control tools/techniques and software, the problem persist and distorts the cost and time objectives of many construction projects according to Olawale and Sun (2010). In recent times, there have been numerous studies aimed at proffering solution to this seemingly intractable problem
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