THESIS ABSTRACT

Abstract

Most of the multi-span trail bridge construction projects in Nepal, either completed or ongoing, suffer from time overrun and its consequences. Ten Multi-span Suspension Trail Bridge project contract agreements were awarded to complete until the fiscal year 2019/020. But only six projects were completed with delay and the remaining projects were not completed during the study period 2023. All these ten multi-span trail bridge projects were taken for study to identify the major causes of delay, assess the effects of delay, and recommend possible measures for minimizing the delay on these construction projects. For this, numerous research papers were analyzed and case study of construction projects of multi-span trail bridge were carried out. Secondary data were collected from literature reviews and studied official documents and manuals. The main source of collecting primary data was a questionnaire survey based on field visits, interviews with related key informants and literature reviews. The causes of delay were categorized separately into six categories client-related, contractor-related, consultant-related, management-related, resource-related, and external- related factors. From the overall ranking of 106 causes of delay, the major causes of delay on multi-span trail bridge projects construction in Nepal were Covid-19 and lockdown severely affected construction work (RII=0.859), delay in providing wireropes and bulldog grips (RII=0.815), insufficient data collection and lack of detailed survey before design (RII=0.815),ineffective planning and scheduling, poor site investigation and improper soil exploration, and increase in prices of labors, materials, equipment and fuel all with RII value 0.785. The effects of delay were also ranked with the relative importance index. From the findings of this study, the top five effects of delay were time overruns (RII=0.795), increase in the material and equipment cost (RII=0.771), increase in project cost (RII=0.761), increase in overhead cost (RII=0.741), and increase in stress to overall team with RII value 0.727. viii Identification of main causes of delays and its consequences, this study also recommends possible measures for minimizing the delays on the construction of multi-span trail bridge projects as proper project planning and scheduling (RII=0.888), recommendations taken from previous projects and studies (RII=0.878), sufficient site management and training to SBD technical personnel (RII=0.810), frequent progress meeting with RII value 0.80, so that timely completion of new trail bridge projects will be done . Multi-span suspension trail bridge construction work is of specialized nature having requirement of modern management concept and good knowledge but management is generally getting less priority, so proper deployment of resources with defined roles, responsibilities, good monitoring and follow ups is recommended separately and combined to client, contractor and consultants. Similar study on multi-span suspension motorable bridges or other construction field could be the topic for further study.

Keywords

Most of the multi-span trail bridge construction projects in Nepal, either completed or ongoing, suffer from time overrun and its consequences. Ten Multi-span Suspension Trail Bridge project contract agreements were awarded to complete until the fiscal year 2019/020. But only six projects were completed with delay and the remaining projects were not completed during the study period 2023. All these ten multi-span trail bridge projects were taken for study to identify the major causes of delay, assess the effects of delay, and recommend possible measures for minimizing the delay on these construction projects. For this, numerous research papers were analyzed and case study of construction projects of multi-span trail bridge were carried out. Secondary data were collected from literature reviews and studied official documents and manuals. The main source of collecting primary data was a questionnaire survey based on field visits, interviews with related key informants and literature reviews. The causes of delay were categorized separately into six categories client-related, contractor-related, consultant-related, management-related, resource-related, and external- related factors. From the overall ranking of 106 causes of delay, the major causes of delay on multi-span trail bridge projects construction in Nepal were Covid-19 and lockdown severely affected construction work (RII=0.859), delay in providing wireropes and bulldog grips (RII=0.815), insufficient data collection and lack of detailed survey before design (RII=0.815),ineffective planning and scheduling, poor site investigation and improper soil exploration, and increase in prices of labors, materials, equipment and fuel all with RII value 0.785. The effects of delay were also ranked with the relative importance index. From the findings of this study, the top five effects of delay were time overruns (RII=0.795), increase in the material and equipment cost (RII=0.771), increase in project cost (RII=0.761), increase in overhead cost (RII=0.741), and increase in stress to overall team with RII value 0.727. viii Identification of main causes of delays and its consequences, this study also recommends possible measures for minimizing the delays on the construction of multi-span trail bridge projects as proper project planning and scheduling (RII=0.888), recommendations taken from previous projects and studies (RII=0.878), sufficient site management and training to SBD technical personnel (RII=0.810), frequent progress meeting with RII value 0.80, so that timely completion of new trail bridge projects will be done . Multi-span suspension trail bridge construction work is of specialized nature having requirement of modern management concept and good knowledge but management is generally getting less priority, so proper deployment of resources with defined roles, responsibilities, good monitoring and follow ups is recommended separately and combined to client, contractor and consultants. Similar study on multi-span suspension motorable bridges or other construction field could be the topic for further study.