Project Management and Performance of Rural Road Construction Projects in Machakos County, Kenya
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Date
2020-11
Authors
Mayende, Wandiri Cornelius
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Good road networks have been known to open up places in both urban and rural areas and result in better access to services such as health, education, markets and other social amenities. Ultimately, roads influence the economies of the geographical locations that are connected through trade, communication, transportation and setting up of businesses. They also influence provision of basic and essential services. Project performance describes how well a project meets its technical specification, functionality, cost of implementing and time taken to deliver the project. Machakos county had road construction projects in various stages of completion. The Tala-Donyo Sabuk road was launched in June 2016 which was expected to cover 70 kilometres in length and be completed by 2018. However, it was at 22.29 percent completion with the output for constructed work in the 2016/2017 financial year being only 13.3 kilometres. Matuu-Ekalakal–Kangulu road was launched in 2015 yet it was still in mobilization stage with a planned length of 80 kilometres. Kenol-Ngoleni-Kaani / Mutituni–Kaseve road was launched in the 2016/2017 financial year although only 7.71 percent of the road has been worked on since the launch date with no construction work carried out in the 2016/2017 financial year. Construction of Kimutwa–Makaveti-Kwamutisya road which was expected to have started by the end of 2016/2017 financial year had not started with the progress noted to be only at mobilizing stage. These projects performed poorly when measured against the time expected to be completed and the project allocated funds. It was against this background that the study was carried out to evaluate the effect of project planning, project execution and project monitoring and control on the performance of rural road construction projects in Machakos county. The target population was the 18 road projects in Machakos county, both in completed and in on-going condition as at the time of the study. The respondents comprised of road construction project engineers, prequalified road contractors, auditors, project planners and ministry of transport road project engineers for each road construction project. In addition, persons selected from the committees representing the interests of residents of Machakos county were part of the respondents with the total number being 100. The study used descriptive and causal research designs and applied a questionnaire that was semi-structured in collection of data. The data that was collected was analysed using frequency distribution, standard deviation and regression analysis techniques and was presented in the form of graphs and tables. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to perform analysis of the quantitative data. The findings indicate that the performance of rural road construction projects was influenced significantly by project planning, project execution and project monitoring and control. Of the three project management practices studied, project planning had the highest influence on project performance. The study recommends that project monitoring and control, project execution and project planning should be used through the life cycle of projects in order to ensure that the projects meet the set goals of completion on time, within budgeted cost and be of acceptable quality.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration (Project Management), Kenyatta University. November, 2020
Keywords
Project Management, Performance, Rural Road Construction Projects, Machakos County, Kenya