Rework in Civil Infrastructure Projects: Determination of Cost Predictors
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 136, Issue 3
Abstract
Within Australia, civil engineering works continue to meet the insatiable demand for new infrastructure despite project complexity and cost and schedule overruns. A significant factor that can contribute to such overruns is rework; yet to date research into the root causes and consequential costs of rework in civil infrastructure projects has been limited. Using a questionnaire survey, rework costs and probable causes were obtained from 115 civil infrastructure projects. Stepwise multiple regression was then used to determine the significant variables that contributed to rework. The regression model revealed that the following five significant predictors accounted for 25% of the variance in total rework cost: (1) ineffective use of information technologies; (2) excessive client involvement in the project; (3) lack of clearly defined working procedures; (4) changes made at the request of the client; and (5) insufficient changes initiated by the contractor to improve quality. The findings also revealed that mean total rework costs were 10% of the contract value for the sample. Interestingly, the extent of rework experienced was significantly correlated with project cost and schedule growth . It is suggested that future work is required to determine the underlying factors that contribute to rework in civil infrastructure projects before effective preventive strategies can be identified.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments which have helped improve this manuscript. The writers would also like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Australian Research Council.
References
Abdul-Rahman, H. (1993). “The management and cost of quality for civil engineering projects.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), Manchester, U.K.
Alreck, P. L., and Settle, R. B. (1985). The survey research handbook, Richard D. Irwin Inc., Homewood, Ill.
Barber, P., Sheath, D., Tomkins, C., and Graves, A. (2000). “The cost of quality failures in major civil engineering projects.” Int. J. Qual. Reliab. Manage., 17(4/5), 479–492.
Burati, J. L., Farrington, J. J., and Ledbetter, W. B. (1992). “Causes of quality deviations in design and construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 118(1), 34–49.
Construction Industry Development Agency (CIDA). (1995). Measuring up or muddling through: Best practice in the Australian non-residential construction industry, Construction Industry Development Agency and Masters Builders Australia, Sydney, Australia.
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). “Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests.” Psychometrika, 16, 297–334.
Josephson, P. -E., and Hammarlund, Y. (1999). “The causes and costs of defects in construction. A study of seven building projects.” Autom. Constr., 8(6), 681–687.
Love, P. E. D. (2002). “Influence of project type and procurement method on rework costs in building construction projects.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 128(1), 18–29.
Love, P. E. D., and Edwards, D. (2005). “Calculating total rework costs in Australian construction projects.” Civ. Eng. Environ. Syst., 22(1), 11–27.
Love, P. E. D., Edwards, D. J., Irani, Z., and Walker, D. H. T. (2009). “Project pathogens: The anatomy of omission errors in construction and resource engineering projects.” IEEE Trans. Eng. Manage., 56(3), 425–435.
Love, P. E. D., Irani, Z., and Edwards, D. J. (2004). “A rework reduction model for construction projects.” IEEE Trans. Eng. Manage., 51(4), 426–440.
Love, P. E. D., and Li, H. (2000). “Quantifying the causes and costs of rework in construction.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 18(4), 479–490.
Love, P. E. D., Shen, L. Y., Li, H., Holt, G. D., and Irani, Z. (2002). “Using system dynamics to understand change and rework within construction project management systems.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 20(6), 425–436.
Love, P. E. D., and Smith, J. (2003). “Bench-marking, bench-action and bench-learning: Rework mitigation in projects.” J. Manage. Eng., 19(4), 147–159.
Nylén, K. -O. (1996). “Cost of failure in a major civil engineering project.” Licentiate thesis, Div. of Construction Management and Economics, Dept. of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Oppenheim, A. N. (1992). Questionnaire design, interviewing, and attitude measurement, Pinter, London.
Robinson-Fayek, A., Dissanayake, M., and Campero, O. (2004). “Developing a standard methodology for measuring and classifying construction field rework.” Can. J. Civ. Eng., 31(6), 1077–1089.
Tabachnick, B., and Fidell, L. S. (1996). Using multivariate statistics, 3rd Ed., Harper Collins, New York.
Zeitoun, A., and Oberlander, G. (1993). “Early warning signs of project changes.” Source Document 91, Construction Industry Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Tex.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 10, 2008
Accepted: Aug 17, 2009
Published online: Feb 12, 2010
Published in print: Mar 2010
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.