November 17, 2016 Journal article Open Access

Assessment of Factors Affecting Labor Productivity on Road Construction Projects in Oromia Region, Bale Zone

Mengistu, Melese; Prof. Emer Tucay Quezon; Kebede , Getachew

Road construction in Ethiopia is booming and radiating from Addis Ababa towards North-East and East-West directions to fulfill its long term development program. Transportation is a prime mover to all sectors in the country to uplift the economic activities of the populace in the locality. In most countries, experience and related literature have revealed that road construction labor costs accounted at 30-60% of the total cost of a project, depending on the terrain and source of materials, labor, and equipment to be utilized. Therefore, construction labor productivity plays a vital role in the performance and profitability of road construction projects. Road sector construction projects in Ethiopia are means through which development strategies are achieved. This research study gives insight into the assessment of the factors affecting labor productivity in road construction projects through a structured questionnaire survey of 83 respondents working on construction road projects in the Oromia Region, Bale Zone. Respondents were required to rate how the 61 factors affecting labor productivity with respect to the importance and frequency of occurrence. Understanding these factors is helpful for the construction professionals who work on the initial phase of construction planning in order to efficiently deliver the project plan and to solve poor labor productivity. The results of this survey were then analyzed using the Relative Importance Index (RII) and ranked. The reliability of these 61 factors for assessing the effect on labor productivity was tested by Chronbach’s alpha measurement, and the results indicated that the 30 factors tested are reliable (α= 0.973), and checked by SPSS. Result of this analysis showed that there are 11 groups which have significant impacts on the labor productivity ranked as Material and Equipment Factor with RII=0.819, Manpower and Work-Force Factor with RII=0.764, Management Factor with RII=0.737, Quality Factors with RII=0.720, Supervision Factor with RII=0.699, Safety Factor with RII=0.691, Motivation Factor with RII=0.682, Schedule Factor with RII=0.647, Political Factor with RII=0.620, Natural and environmental Factor with RII=0.566 and Cultural and Religious Factor with RII=0.541. Based on the results of this research study, the top factors that affect labor productivity includes: Lack of experience of labor, Material construction shortage, Lack of labour skills, Accident, Tools and Equipment shortage, Labor’s bad habit, Poor site management, Lack of Labor surveillance, Payment delay and Ignore safety precautions. Therefore, this research study suggests that the contractors should assign project managers and construction supervisors with sufficient managerial skills in road construction projects so that when there are any problems that may arise, it would be acted and solved immediately at the project site. On the other hand, the role of the Ethiopian government in project implementation is very significant, which requires proper attention to the productivity issue to enforce hard and fast laws and regulations which help to obtain a productive workforce in the road construction industry.