THESIS ABSTRACT

Abstract

Most of the public infrastructures in Nepal are developed using traditional methods like the design bid build method where the owner is responsible for the design and construction of a project. The traditional design bid build method of contract has its own sets of disadvantages. To overcome the shortcomings of traditional contracts, lack of experience, and expertise on the client’s part, the Government of Nepal used design-build operate methods of contracts to rehabilitate and develop wastewater treatment plants. While trying to take benefits of the design-build-operate (DBO) modality, the wastewater treatment plant projects with DBO methods of contracts also faced delays during implementation. This study was undertaken to assess the causes of delays, their effects, and remedial measures early on to assist timely completion of ongoing and upcoming projects. The study was divided into 3 sets of separate surveys among the personnel involved in wastewater treatment plant construction projects with a design-build-operate (DBO) modality. At first, the key informant interview (KII) was done to check the relevance of causes of delays and their effects identified from the literature review and add new variables causing delays and their effects relevant to these projects based on key informant’s knowledge and experience. Secondly, a questionnaire survey was carried out with separate sets of respondents to rank the causes and effects of delays. After analysis of survey data, the top 10 causes of delays were identified. Thirdly KII survey was carried out to find out remedial measures for major causes of delay and find out the challenges of adopting the DBO model. The qualitative data of the questionnaire was converted to quantitative data with a five-point ranking with a Likert scale to calculate Frequency Index (FI), Severity Index (SI), and Importance Index (II) for causes and effects of delays. 64 causes of delays and 18 effects of delays were found relevant to these projects after having the suggestion from KII. It was found that the major causes of delays were force majeure, delayed payment to the contractor, slow design approval, contractor’s failure to prepare the design and documents to meet KPI. Among the top 10 causes of delays, most of the causes can be applied to the overall construction industry. Among the top delay causes treating DBO contracts as traditional contracts were rather new. The rank correlation between the client-consultant and consultant-contractor was found to be strong. But the rank correlation between the client-contractor had a medium correlation. Major effects of delays were, project time overrun, the complication in re-procurement of terminated contracts, the extra cost to the contractor, and termination of contracts. The rank correlation between the different categories of the respondent was found strong. A key informant’s interview (KII) was conducted to find out the remedial measure for the causes of delays. The key informants suggested the schedule of projects be determined based on the technical analysis and work breakdown structures of project activities. Also, there is a need for proper communication between the contractor and consultant during the design phase to ensure the timely approval of the design. As DBO is a rather new contractual practice, the personnel involved in the implementation of DBO projects tend to treat it as owner designed which created issues causing delays. So, personnel involved must have detailed knowledge about the DBO contractual arrangements to take maximum benefits from these models of contracts. Upon checking the relevancy of DBO contracts in WWTP projects the clients were found satisfied with the adoption of DBO contracts and the viii suggestions made by key informants were to formulate the relevant policies and promote capacity development among the personnel involved in DBO methods of project delivery system.

Keywords

Most of the public infrastructures in Nepal are developed using traditional methods like the design bid build method where the owner is responsible for the design and construction of a project. The traditional design bid build method of contract has its own sets of disadvantages. To overcome the shortcomings of traditional contracts, lack of experience, and expertise on the client’s part, the Government of Nepal used design-build operate methods of contracts to rehabilitate and develop wastewater treatment plants. While trying to take benefits of the design-build-operate (DBO) modality, the wastewater treatment plant projects with DBO methods of contracts also faced delays during implementation. This study was undertaken to assess the causes of delays, their effects, and remedial measures early on to assist timely completion of ongoing and upcoming projects. The study was divided into 3 sets of separate surveys among the personnel involved in wastewater treatment plant construction projects with a design-build-operate (DBO) modality. At first, the key informant interview (KII) was done to check the relevance of causes of delays and their effects identified from the literature review and add new variables causing delays and their effects relevant to these projects based on key informant’s knowledge and experience. Secondly, a questionnaire survey was carried out with separate sets of respondents to rank the causes and effects of delays. After analysis of survey data, the top 10 causes of delays were identified. Thirdly KII survey was carried out to find out remedial measures for major causes of delay and find out the challenges of adopting the DBO model. The qualitative data of the questionnaire was converted to quantitative data with a five-point ranking with a Likert scale to calculate Frequency Index (FI), Severity Index (SI), and Importance Index (II) for causes and effects of delays. 64 causes of delays and 18 effects of delays were found relevant to these projects after having the suggestion from KII. It was found that the major causes of delays were force majeure, delayed payment to the contractor, slow design approval, contractor’s failure to prepare the design and documents to meet KPI. Among the top 10 causes of delays, most of the causes can be applied to the overall construction industry. Among the top delay causes treating DBO contracts as traditional contracts were rather new. The rank correlation between the client-consultant and consultant-contractor was found to be strong. But the rank correlation between the client-contractor had a medium correlation. Major effects of delays were, project time overrun, the complication in re-procurement of terminated contracts, the extra cost to the contractor, and termination of contracts. The rank correlation between the different categories of the respondent was found strong. A key informant’s interview (KII) was conducted to find out the remedial measure for the causes of delays. The key informants suggested the schedule of projects be determined based on the technical analysis and work breakdown structures of project activities. Also, there is a need for proper communication between the contractor and consultant during the design phase to ensure the timely approval of the design. As DBO is a rather new contractual practice, the personnel involved in the implementation of DBO projects tend to treat it as owner designed which created issues causing delays. So, personnel involved must have detailed knowledge about the DBO contractual arrangements to take maximum benefits from these models of contracts. Upon checking the relevancy of DBO contracts in WWTP projects the clients were found satisfied with the adoption of DBO contracts and the viii suggestions made by key informants were to formulate the relevant policies and promote capacity development among the personnel involved in DBO methods of project delivery system.