ABSTRACT
This study was designed to evaluate the Optimizing sustainability in road infrastructure system used in the project delivery of the operation and maintenance of Ikom-Mfum Road located in Cross River State, Nigeria, to highlight and inform Stakeholders of the concept of Procurement/ Project delivery systems, Contracting/ Payment systems and also Optimizing sustainability in road infrastructure system. The study discovered that managing public assets involves a systematic process of operating, maintaining, and upgrading physical assets in a cost-effective manner. Thus, the use of optimizing sustainability in road infrastructure as a contract/payment system could be recommended as the most appropriate way of managing and maintaining roads and this is because it focuses more on the output rather than the input and it adheres with most of the standard key performance indicators like cost, quality, long term, effectiveness, environment etc., it has proved to be efficient in maintaining and managing roads and roads assets, it focuses on long term rather than short term and it keeps the good roads good
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Public infrastructures, particularly roads, have a strong linkage with the economic growth of a nation (Anak, 2013). The provision, operation and maintenance of Infrastructure and project delivery of Roads, Buildings, Dams and others alike over the years in Nigeria and in the World at Large have been challenging and the main reasons for this trend are a shortage of public funds and hands off approach of government agencies. Many transportation agencies experience a backlog of projects because of limited funding (Anak, 2013). In addition, policies, methods, approach, contracting/payment system and procurement/project delivery system amongst others also affect project delivery. Different approaches have been adopted in an attempt to define the roles, responsibilities and conflicting objectives of infrastructure project participants (Alaba, 2014).
Although there are many approaches aimed at assessing the socio-economic and environmental feasibility of surface transportation projects such as roads and railway infrastructure, presently there is no standardised or commonly accepted methodology to assure sustainability in the appraisal and evaluation of road projects over the life-cycle. Current approaches could be broadly grouped into three categories: (1) traditional decision-making process techniques including costbenefit analysis (CBA), multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), and others; (2) road design process including standards and codes, and (3) sustainability rating systems and models for assessing sustainability of infrastructure design and construction.
However, these methods do not seem to apply for all the sustainability drivers of road projects. The main weakness of these tools is that they are either weighted towards environmental or economic assessment, do not address sustainability in a thorough way, or may be overly focused on certain stages of project development. CBA still has serious defects, especially when evaluating incommensurable goods. MCDA can introduce a subjective qualitative assessment, especially in the criteria weighting. Conversely, rating systems and models are useful to score and compare projects but are mostly focused on environmental aspects, are focused more on the construction stage of projects, and are not based on standardised methods of performance measurement.
Finally, up to now little has been done to incorporate sustainability criteria into the engineering design standards of linear infrastructure projects. This research contributes to fill this gap by developing an approach to introduce sustainability criteria in the appraisal of road projects. The tool developed in this research is expected to help decision-makers select the most adequate road infrastructure design from the point of view of sustainability – recognising as far as possible the limitations and constraints placed by local planning systems, design standards and codes of practice. This will require a comprehensive understanding of the complexity of sustainability principles when selecting design criteria for highways. Since sustainability is a broad concept, we explore terminology and explain what sustainability means in this context. After that, we follow a systematic approach aimed at identifying key aspects that are not being incorporated in current methods and practices for sustainability assessment. The assessment model developed by this research describes the way to incorporate the sustainability elements in project appraisal, in order to identify the trade-off between social, environmental and economic issues, to ensure that each road project is undertaken in the most sustainable way.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The problem associated with the Optimizing sustainability in road infrastructure and Procurement System “A case study of Ikom-Mfum road in Cross River State, Nigeria” is that most of the stakeholders and professionals in construction industry who partake onsite and offsite in infrastructure and road construction and maintenance amongst others understand how to carry out construction works and also partly the concept of procurement/ project delivery systems and contracting/ payment systems but they do not understand the types of procurement/ project delivery systems and contracting/payment systems and also Optimizing sustainability in road infrastructure and Procurement System. They also do not know the difference between procurement/ project delivery systems and contracting/ payment systems. They are barriers which could be summarized as fear of the unknown which inhibit implementation of sustainable and newer procurement/ project delivery systems and contracting/ payment systems even though it has been widely used in developed and developing countries with success rates. This results to the failure in acceptance and wide use of the optimizing sustainability in road infrastructure system in Nigeria. Also maintenance is done mostly when there is need whereas it’s supposed to be a constant venture and also these contractors maintain a road and after the defects liability period, they don’t bear the cost as far they follow the designers plans and this results in extra cost on the clients which makes the process not to be sustainable and increases the number of failed roads which may not only be as a result of excess load, bad construction and other factors.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim and objectives of this research includes;
i. To highlight and inform stakeholders of the concept of procurement/project delivery systems, contracting/payment systemsand alsooptimizing sustainability in road infrastructure Road In road construction.
ii. To access factors that affect project delivery in Nigeria.
iii. To highlight and inform Stakeholders of the concept of optimizing sustainability
Based Road in road construction.
iv. To evaluate theOptimizing sustainability in road infrastructure system.
v. To evaluate theOptimizing sustainability in road infrastructure system used in the project delivery of the operation and maintenance of Ikom-Mfum Road located in Cross River State, Nigeria.
1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study addresses the use of Optimizing sustainability in road infrastructure and Procurement system in Nigeria for the purpose of Roads and Road Assets Management which includes Construction, Operation and Maintenance.
1.5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
This study may usher in a new, cheaper and sustainable way of project delivery, contracting, constructing, managing and maintaining roads and other infrastructures assets in Nigeria.
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Item Type: Project Material | Size: 129 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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