Delay Causes in Sub-Projects of the Ho Chi Minh National Highway Construction Project

Vietnam has been remarkably successful in expanding infrastructure construction project.

During the execution of Highway construction project, the construction time, cost and quality of a project were commonly considered as key factors of project success. The project time can be evaluated as the very important factor in the project management work because it affects directly on the profit and investment effect of project. The project investment effect will be reduced significantly if project time delay happens.

The procedures of the project management in general and the time management in particular in Highway construction project has been improved to apply in Vietnam for recent years as at that point Vietnam carried out the open-door policy to attract FDI (Foreign direct investment) projects. However, many problems have been revealed due to the deficiency of the proficiencies in project management, such as: project delays take place usually in the development projects due to Poor planning and controlling; poor Finance Competence of the contractors; unfair contract conditions included unfair and non strictness treatment of contract delay; poor competence of supervision consultant; deficient transmission among other parties, weather condition, resettlement policy or other factors. It is found out that more than 70% of the Ho Chi Minh highway construction sub-projects have the problems with project time delays.

Normally, the success of a project is measured if it was completed punctually, with reasonable cost and quality. It is proved that the completion of every construction project will be on time and under budget only if it has been managed efficiently and effectively. Particularly, several previous researchers demonstrated that at least a half of project delay causations can be avoided by a proficient policy in project management.  Nguyen Dinh Duong made a case study which main objectives were to:

1. identify the delay causes in the Ho Chi Minh highway construction sub-projects which were completed up to now or under construction.

2. To develop a framework to control and prevent delays in the remaining or under construction sub-projects of the Ho Chi Minh highway construction project.

Conclusion

Time delays in construction projects are a global phenomenon. The time delays commonly occurred in most of construction projects and the highway construction projects are not exception.

A case study (the studying sub-project) has been conducted to investigate the delaying factors, causes and solutions for controlling and preventing the delay of the Ho Chi Minh highway construction sub-project. The analyzed results of this study pointed out that there are nine delaying factors and numerous delaying causes in the studying sub-project.

A framework with solutions is proposed for controlling and preventing the delay of the studying sub-project. The result implemented on the studied sub-project proved that the solutions proposed for controlling and preventing the time delay during the construction are implemented successfully.  Effect of applying the solutions to control and prevent delays during the construction of the studying sub-project resulting in the rate of the work progress of the studied sub-project has been improved quickly and at the end, completion period of the studied sub-project has been maintained between 15 months as the original plan.

Effect of controlling and preventing the project delay will come more effectively if solutions proposed are applied since the project preparation, detailed design and contractor selection phases etc.

Recommendation

The HCM NH construction project is a great and very important highway construction project in Vietnam. HCM NH project is around 2667 kilometers long including two phases. The first phase was started in 2000 and planned to complete in 2010 with cost estimated of around 2.3 billions USD. Up to now, 57 sub-projects of the first phase HCM NH construction project have been completed or being implemented. A larger number of this sub - projects (about 70%) have encountered with time delay. In accordance with the approved plan, the second phase of the HCM NH construction project was implemented since 2010 to 2020 with cost estimated of around 15 billion USD and divided in a lot of sub-projects.

Based on the actual delaying situation of the first phase sub-projects and result of successful implementation on the studying sub-project, this report recommends strongly application to control and prevent delays in the remaining HCM NH construction sub-projects.

Abstract

In general, project completed with destined time, cost, and quality is the basic target of construction project management. The Ho Chi Minh National highway (HCM NH) construction project is a great and very important highway construction project in Viet Nam. HCM NH project is around 2667 kilometers long, does not include the West branch with the length of 500 kilometers from Khe Gat – Quang Binh province to Thach My – Quang Nam province. Cost estimated of the first phase is around 2.3 billions USD by Vietnamese Government for the two carriageway lanes standard. The first phase was started in 2000 and planned to complete in 2010. After that, from 2010 to 2020, the HCM NH will be improved step by step to standard of the high-speedway with the cost estimated of this phase is about 15 billions USD. For the purpose of performance arrangement, this project is divided into the HCM NH construction sub-projects. Regrettably, up to now, most the HCM NH construction sub-projects cannot be finished within intended time, budget and resources.

Normally, time delay always happened in Ho Chi Minh NH construction sub-projects. This report summarized the delay causes factors involved in the Ho Chi Minh NH construction sub-projects. This report will be conducted by using qualitative early researches. Through a case study on the road construction sub-project connecting the HCM NH to the Lan Ong commemorative area, the data will be collected to analyze the facing problems. It was discovered from this study that there were many factors causing project time delays in the studying sub-project. From the case study, effective solutions for controlling the delays will be investigated. Finally, a framework for controlling and preventing delays in Ho Chi Minh NH construction sub-projects in the future is proposed.