Enforcement of legal remedies against construction projects time overrun in Ethiopia: A critical appraisal

Abstract

Construction time overrun is one of the common inefficiencies of public construction projects in Ethiopia. Laws and standard construction contracts stipulate different legal remedies against project time overrun. This paper is meant to unravel these legal remedies and their application to construction project time overrun in public construction projects in Ethiopia. To this end, the magnitude of time overrun, its common causes, and the practical implementation of legal remedies against it is exposed through literature review, primary data obtained from 18 roads and 10 public building projects, and interviews of 10 key informants. The result showed, although time is not the essence of construction contract in international standard conditions of contracts, it is a fundamental obligation the breach of which would give rise to termination of the contract under the laws and standard conditions of contracts applicable to public works in Ethiopia. However, the paper established that the practical implantation of these legal remedies against time overrun in public construction projects is very erratic although time overrun is a rampant challenge of the construction industry of the country in general and public construction projects in particular.

Archives of Civil Engineering

“…[12] and Sintayehu D.K. and T. Zhang (2020) call it construction project modes of contracting [41]. Despite the difference in terminology used by the above-enumerated authors, a common understanding that can be generated from them is that construction project delivery system is all about how the project participants are organized to transform the project owner's goals and objectives into finished products [40].…”

“…649/2009 has developed its standard condition of contract to which several bid documents are attached with for procurement of non-complex works. For complex public works the value of which exceeds 10 million USD, government agencies in Ethiopia are instructed to make use of FIDIC standard contract forms [21,41]. This standard condition of contract is applicable only for DBB projects implemented by government agencies and the country has not yet developed a standard condition of contract to be used for other modes of contracting.…”

Application of the Lean Construction methodology in an urban paving work

“…Certain factors in the project execution generate negative results, such as deficient management and procedures in construction that result in delays at the beginning of the activities, reprocesses, inefficient planning and programming [4], and the lack of quality in materials and their slow delivery [5]. On the other hand, low productivity is one of the many challenges faced by the construction industry, which generates delays during the execution of the works [6]; therefore, this is the most significant challenge in construction [7]. Additionally, the Last Planner System is mentioned as a tool that is not being used properly due to certain deficiencies such as the absence of observation, incompatibilities with project delivery methods, inadequate planning, and non-compliance in the analysis of restrictions [8].…”

Construction Schedule Risk Assessment and Management Strategy for Foreign General Contractors Working in the Ethiopian Construction Industry

“…Tadewos and Patel [6] reported that none of the Addis Ababa highway projects were completed on time. Kebede and Zhang [7] also stated that one of the most common inefficiencies in the industry is the construction schedule delay. Zinabu [8] expressed concerns and recommended to take immediate actions for the reduction of construction schedule delays.…”

“…1 is calculated using Equation(7), and Table11presents the results computed for S i . S 1 = 0.128 + 0.147 + 0.122 + 0.086 + 0.169 + 0.145 + 0.120 + 0.120 + 0.240 + 0.188 + 0.189 = 1.654 4.…”