Technology and Quality of Road Construction Projects in Kenya: A focus on Contractor’s Exposure to Technology in Machakos Sub-County
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Road traffic accidents are a menace to a developing country such as Kenya. The National Transport and Safety Authority website records over 57,171 cases of road traffic accidents NTSA [15]. Adopting the root cause analysis technique, it is crucial to determine and to solve the cause of a problem in order to have a permanent solution for it. This study focuses on road construction projects which are the actual onset of road traffic accidents. Occurrences of road traffic accidents are dependent on various factors ranging from the ideology of road construction projects to the operation of a sound or unsound vehicle on the road. Numerous studies have been done to research on the factors influencing quality of road construction projects but little has been done to determine how contractors related factors affect quality of road construction projects. Due to the research gap in the pool of knowledge, this study is aimed at identifying and analyzing how contractor’s exposure to technology influences the quality of road construction projects. The study area that was analyzed in this project was Machakos sub-county situated in the Lower Eastern region of Kenya. The study was guided by the objective: to establish influence of contractor’s exposure to technology on quality of road construction projects. This study applied Systems theory approach. A descriptive survey research design and a cross-sectional approach was used to collect quantitative data by use of close-ended questionnaires. The total target population was 223and a calculative formula adopted from Kothari [8] was used to acquire a sample size of 141 respondents. Stratified random sampling technique was applied on the sample size of 141 respondents to classify them into homogenous groups. Questionnaires were used as the main data collection instruments and were issued to the respondents. The gathered data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the data being presented descriptively using frequencies and percentages. Pearson’s product moment correlation procedure method was used to analyze the inferential statistic data and the results presented. In this study Spearman’s was used to measure the degree of association between the independent and dependent variables. On the influence of contractor’s exposure to technology, a composite mean of 3.74, standard deviation of 1.028 and a strong correlation value of 0.373 were achieved. The survey elicit conclusion was that quality of road construction projects in Machakos Sub-County was influenced by the independent variable.
Downloads
References
-
Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury and Planning (2020). 2020 Economic Survey Report: 28th April 2020. 2018 - 2022 State Department for Planning.
Google Scholar
1
-
Department of Roads and Public Works, (2020). Machakos County Report.
Google Scholar
2
-
Graham, S. Mohammed, R. Christopple, N. & Chan, B. (2012). Why Project Teams? Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar
3
-
Gwayo, A. (2014). A Critical Analysis of the causes pf project Management Failures in Kenya. International Journal of soft Computing and Engineering, 4(1), 64- 69.
Google Scholar
4
-
Karehka, R. (2012). New Business Technology. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.use of technology.com.
Google Scholar
5
-
Kasau, M. Prof. Eng. Mang’uriu, G. Dr. Diang’a, S. (2017). Factors that Influence the Incidences of Road Accidents in Kenya: A Survey of Black Spots along Mombasa-Malaba Road. International Academic Journal of Information Sciences and Project Management (IAJISPM) | ISSN 2519-7711 http://www.iajournals.org/articles/iajispm_v2_i1_38_65.pdf.
Google Scholar
6
-
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2012). Kenya Facts and Figures. Nairobi, Kenya.
Google Scholar
7
-
Kothari, C. R. & Gaurav, G. (2004), Research Methodology, Third Edition, New Age Publishers, New Delhi.
Google Scholar
8
-
Kovalenko, K. Akhmetshin, M. (2019) The introduction of new technologies in the development and production of roads. Kazan Federal University, Elabuga Institute of KFU, Elabuga, Russian Federation 2Altai State University, Barnaul, Russian Federation. Russia.
Google Scholar
9
-
Minde, R. (2018). Analyzing The Contractor related factors influencing Quality Throughout the Lifecycle of a Road Project.
Google Scholar
10
-
Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Kenya (2014). The ministry of transport and infrastructure: Government Printers, Kenya.
Google Scholar
11
-
Mugenda, O. and Mugenda, A. (2003). Research Methods, Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, Nairobi. Kenya.
Google Scholar
12
-
Musyoki, Agnes. (2018). Institutional Factors Influencing Implementation of Infrastructure Projects by County Governments in Kenya, A case of Embu county, Kenya.
Google Scholar
13
-
National Construction Authority (NCA) (2020). http://www.nca.go.ke/.
Google Scholar
14
-
National Transport and Safety Authority, (2020). http://www.ntsa.go.ke/.
Google Scholar
15
-
Stephene N. (2013). Effects of Application of Technology in the Performance of Infrastructure Projects in Switzerland. International Journal of Project Management (19); 393-419.
Google Scholar
16
-
Wafula, E. (2017). Contractor related factors influencing Road Project Performance in Kenya. The University of Nairobi.
Google Scholar
17
-
Watt, A. (2012). Project Management. Published by BCampus Open Education, https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-5-project-stakeholders-project-management/.
Google Scholar
18
-
Wondimu, P. Hailemichaelc, E. Hosseinia, A. Lohnea, J. Torpa, O. Lædrea, O. (2016). Success factors for early contractor involvement (ECI) in public infrastructure projects. Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway b Norwegian Public Roads Authority (NPRA), Norway. Elsevier Ltd.
Google Scholar
19
-
World Bank (2013) World Bank participatory source book. A World Bank Publication, Washington DC.
Google Scholar
20
-
Zells, L. (2011). Balancing trade-offs in quality, cost, schedule, resources, and risk. Project Management Institute Seminar/Symposium: papers present September 28 to October 2, 1991, 406-411.
Google Scholar
21
Most read articles by the same author(s)
-
Nicholas Obudho Simon,
Mary Nyawira Mwenda,
Influence of Stakeholders’ Participation in Monitoring and Evaluation Process on Implementation of HIV & AIDS Projects in Kenya: A Case of Dreams Project in Nairobi County , European Journal of Business and Management Research: Vol. 6 No. 1 (2021) -
Rose Wanja Kinyua,
Mary Nyawira Mwenda,
Optimizing Public Private Partnership in Implementation of Railway Transport Projects in Kenya: A Case of the National Standard Gauge Railway , European Journal of Business and Management Research: Vol. 5 No. 6 (2020) -
John Malu Nzioki,
Mary Nyawira Mwenda,
Promoting Performance of the Building Construction Industry through Risk Identification: A Case of Exchequer Funded Building Construction Projects in Machakos County, Kenya , European Journal of Business and Management Research: Vol. 5 No. 6 (2020) -
Antony Musyoki Mbandi,
Mary Nyawira Mwenda,
Influence of Project Implementation Strategies by Religious Organizations on Rural Development: A Case of Kitui Catholic Diocese, Kitui County, Kenya , European Journal of Business and Management Research: Vol. 6 No. 1 (2021) -
Duncan Mutisya Kamau,
Mary Nyawira Mwenda,
Empowerment of Urban Refugee Youths in Nairobi County, Kenya: A Socio-Economic Perspective , European Journal of Business and Management Research: Vol. 6 No. 1 (2021)