Development of a framework in minimising errors in construction documents in Nigeria

Ayodele, EO

Abstract

Many of the causes of poor project performance which result in cost and time overruns, and poor quality can be traced to some types of errors during the design process. It is discovered that design errors add 5.9% of the contract value and rework, which is a corrective work, has been estimated to be as high as 20% of the design consultant’s fee for a given project. These errors should be eliminated to allow sound project performance. The aim of this research is to develop a framework supported with guidelines for the minimisation of errors in construction documents in Nigeria. The study was carried out by means of literature survey, questionnaire survey and semi structured interviews. Literature survey was used to discover the various definitions of errors and the general types, causes and effects of errors in construction documents. Semi structured interviews were made use of, to elicit the definitions of document error from the respondents. Questionnaires were distributed to construction professionals in south western states and the federal capital territory of Nigeria to determine the types and causes of errors specific to Nigeria and also the effects of document errors on construction cost, time, quality and building occupants. Content analysis, relative importance index, kendall’s coefficient of concordance, severity index, and percentages were used to analyse the data collected. The study showed the causes of errors in construction documents to be: non – availability of information, poor communication, inadequate project brief, poor salaries of professionals, non – identification of project risks, inadequate consultant professional education, inadequate consultant professional experience, inadequate project manager experience, time scheduled pressure, inadequate project planning, complexity of project, concurrent documentation, heavy work load of consultant, poor consultancy fees, inadequate document preparation time and inadequate document manager experience. The study also identified the various types of error in construction documents specific to Nigeria which are: unnecessary additions, non – conformance to client requirement, non – conformance to design code/ SMM, absence of specifications, dimensional error, miscalculation, scanty specification, wrong specification, omission of necessary item and incorrect details. Documentation error added 20.39% to the original contract sum and 11.07% to the original contract period and within seven years in Nigeria 411 people lost their lives as a result of building collapse initiated by documentation error. The developed construction documentation error minimisation framework was captioned by a flow chart.

Citation

Ayodele, E. (in press). Development of a framework in minimising errors in construction documents in Nigeria. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 19, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 19, 2018