CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The construction industry is one of the important Economic Sectors especially in a developing country like Nigeria, Infact, no sector of the economy can develop effectively without infrastructural facilities e.g. building, roads etc. Osofisan (2007), states that “in many developing countries like Nigeria, the construction sector to which the building industry belongs is one of the biggest contributors to the Gross National Product (GNP)”. She further concluded that “Similarly, it has been noted that in some developed countries, more than 16 percent of their GNP is devoted to the construction industries”. The construction sector is a sub-sector of the economy that creates basic infrastructure needed to accommodate inputs of all other sectors. That’s is why construction products are regarded as the essential of life and economic development.

However, inspite of the importance of the industry, construction projects are complicated, parallel, dynamic in nature, and are faced with a lot of problems especially in Nigeria. Construction projects, therefore, require adequate and effective project delivery methods. Consequently clients/owners of construction projects are often bothered with diverse needs in their projects. In order to accommodate these differing needs, various methods for contractual relations have evolved; these various methods are referred to as “project delivery methods”. A project delivery method could be defined as a system designed and packaged to effectively and collectively bring together the owners intentions and the project scope definition in relation to the design and construction issues, in order to be effectively managed by the construction industry participants

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However, in the early 1980s, owners of construction projects have been putting greater pressure on the construction industry to improve quality, reduced cost and more importantly, compress the period from project conception to project completion for all kinds of public and private projects. As a result, both owners and the industry have been experimenting with various forms of project delivery methods with varying degrees of success, as even new methods yet to be experimented are discovered. However, without effective project delivery methods, construction projects may be abandoned.

1.2      STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Construction projects differ from each other, infact two projects with the same design still differ and this is one of the attributes of the industry. Construction projects are unique and thus, exhibit certain characteristics which is different from every other sector of the economy; Therefore, construction projects should be subjected to a proper evaluation of the available alternative methods of its delivery in relation to the owners interest and the scope of the project, considering also other pertinent issues because ineffective project delivery method could lend to

§ Abandonment of project

§ Cost-overrun of project

§ Delay in project completion time

§ Less quality product

§ Lack of technology input

§ Disallowance of flexibility and innovation

§ Multiple construction contracts

§ Increased adversarial relationship

§ Reduction of possibility of competition

§ Increase in life cycle cost etc.

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The uniqueness of every project has reduced the chance of selecting like projects and executing them with the same method. Most selections of alternative methods are done based on a previously used method and this reduces the chance of achieving maximum success for many projects. And these have led to some of the above listed problems

1.3      AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

The aim of this study is to evaluate how project delivery methods are used in the

Nigerian construction industry, with the following objectives:

1.     To find out various types of projects delivery methods used in the construction industry.

2.     To evaluate the effectiveness of various project delivery methods.

3.     To identify the factors influencing the choice of project delivery methods

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