Comparison of Road Construction by Foreign and Local Contrac

Comparison of Road Construction by Local and Foreign Contractors in Ethiopia ( Bole bulbula and Ethio-China friendship road)
Dept. COTM
B Sc. Thesis
COMPARISON OF
ROAD CONSTRUCTION BY
FOREIGN AND LOCAL IN
ETHIOPIA
By: Bekelech Erko
Hiwot Bahru
Wudnesh Befekadu
Advisor: Eng. Fekadu Haile
August, 2006
Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

1
We would like to dedicate our thesis for our late friends:
Abdulkerim Mohmmed
Aschalew Demelash
Habtamu Wake
Muhammed Husein

2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We owe the success of this paper to AACRA General Manager Eng.

Fekaddu Haile who gave us his invaluable assistance and direction in the
preparation of this thesis. Our thanks also goes to Eng. Abera Shebru for
being helpfull.
We also would like to express our sincere and heartfelt gratitude to

Dr. Samuel Tadesse and Dr. Wubshet Jakale who pointed us in the right
direction.
And finally, earnest thanks to AACRA, Geom. Luigi Varnero Impresa

Construzioni Plc., and Eng. Fekere from CRBC ADDIS ENGINEERING PLC.
and Eng. Metsihafe Mekbib from Zewdie Eskindir and Co. PLc. for
providing us the necessary information.

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Table of Content
Table of Content.................................................................................................... 4
Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 5
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ......................................................................... 6
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................. 7
ROAD CONSTRUCTION IN ETHIOPIA ......................................................................................... 7
INVOLVEMENT OF LOCAL CONTRACTORS IN ROAD WORKS .................................................. 9
CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT......................................................................... 11
CONSTRUCTION HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ............................................................ 12
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................... 13
Chapter - I HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT...................................... 17
And Work Scheduling ......................................................................................... 17
Chapter - II CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT................................................ 29
MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................ 29
Chapter - III MATERIALS MANAGEMENT ................................................... 39
Chapter - IV ETHIO – CHINA FREINDSHIP ............................................... 40
ROAD UPGRADING PROJECT .......................................................................... 40
4.1 GENERAL ..................................................................................................................... 40
4.2 PROJECT ASSESSEMENT....................................................................................... 44
4.2.1 HUMAN RESOURCE..............................................................................44
4.2.2 EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT....................................................47
4.2.3 MATERIAL MANAGEMENT ................................................................42
Chapter - IV BOLE BULBULA BRIDGE AND ROAD PROJECT .............. 44
5.1 GENERAL .................................................................................................................... 44
5.2 PROJECT ASSESSEMENT ..................................................................................... 48
5.2.1 HUMAN RESOURCE .............................................................................48
5.2.2 EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT..............................................................51
Chapter - VI COMPARISION........................................................................... 55
Chapter - VII CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION................................. 60
Reference ................................................................................................................... 65
Topic .............................................................................................................66
Description ................................................................................................................... 68
Amount in ETB.................................................................................................................... 68

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Abstract
This study was conducted on Bole-Bulbulla Bridge and Road, and Ethio – China
Freindship Road Upgrading Projects which were constructed from 2003-2005GC.
with the objective of assessing their difference in construction resources and capacity
in management. Working on this paper we discovered Human Resource, Equipment,
Cost, Time and Quality discrepancies in management between the local and foreign
contractors. Weakness of the local contractor mainly lies in selection and utilization of
resources (man power and equipment), time and cost management as well as their
approach towards stakeholders. Foreign contractors, inversely, were efficient and
forthcoming. On the other hand, contrary to local contractors, foreign contractors
perform routine operations though these may not conform to the specification. The
managerial style both follow created shortcomings on the working conditions.
Accordingly it is recommended that by minimizing their flaw and harmonizing their
constructive features, the road construction sector will be enhanced.

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List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
CRBC – China Road and Bridge Corporation
ZUSROM - Ziqualla Steel Rolling Mill Enterprise
HRM - Human Resource Management
AACRA - Addis Ababa City Road Authority
AAWSA - Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority
ELPA - Ethiopian Light and Power Authority
ERA - Ethiopian Road Authority
GOE - Government of Ethiopia
TCDSCo - Transport Construction Design Share Company
RSDP - Road Sector Development Program
Varnero - Geom. Luigi Varnero Impresa Construzioni Plc.

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BACKGROUND
ROAD CONSTRUCTION IN ETHIOPIA
Like in any other country, movement on roads in ancient Ethiopia was done on trails
and foot paths. In addition to the traditional shoulder porterage, animals like mules,
donkeys, horses and camels were used as a means of transportation. Historic
chronicle of 17th and 18th centuries show that there were a number of small roads
(rails and foot paths) in use in various small kingdoms of the country.
These routes served the trade and expansion of both Christian and Islam religion.
Prior to the 17th century, there were efforts in bridge constructions one of which is the
narrow bridge on the gorge in the upper course of the Blue Nile River, downstream of
Tis Isat Falls. This bridge construction effort indicates that there were also road
construction activities at the time although the roads were of rudimentary standards. It
is believed that in the 18th century, especially during the reign of Emperor Towards,
planned road building efforts, although the technology was primitive, were also made.
It was however limited in extent and conceived in strategic rather than economic
terms.
During the Italian occupation the Italians continued the road development program
that had been initiated by the Imperial Ethiopian Government. But the roads built by
them were established to meet the requirement of the
Military Control rather than to promote the overall development of the country’s

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economy. Moreover, the roads built by the Italians lacked most of the modern
location, design and construction features desirable for present day high speed traffic.
The roads and trails built and improved during the brief span of 5 years the Italians
occupation were about 6,000Km. This was done by utilizing large quantities of forced
labor of Ethiopian nationals and some imported Italian laborers. However, when
Ethiopia regained independence the Italians in their fleeing attempt almost undid what
they created during the occupation, by blasting bridges and dynamiting roads.
From the time Italian Administration packed off to home to the eventual creation of
Imperial Highway Authority (now called Ethiopian Road Authority) road construction or
maintenance activity was almost subsided for a stagnation period of one decade.
The first epoch of the post war period was characterized by reorganizing the
destroyed governmental organization and systems. During this period considerable
stagnation in the whole range of social and economic sectors, of which the road Sub-
Sector was one, prevailed.

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INVOLVEMENT OF LOCAL CONTRACTORS IN ROAD WORKS
The economic policy of 1992 sets out the framework for creating an environment that
is conducive for the development of the Domestic Construction Industry and
anticipates that the public and the private sectors should compete for construction
projects. Since mid-1990s, this has promoted a substantial enhancement in the
capacity of the industry both technically and financially.
International contractors have been the major implementers of federal road
rehabilitation, upgrading and construction projects with 70% of total contracts, local
contractors have taken 20% and force account share has been about 10%. Based on
the lessons gained from these, enhancing the domestic construction and maintenance
capacity has been identified as an important aspect of ensuring the sustainability of
the road network. Consequently, more emphasis has been given to further enhance
the capacity of private domestic contractors. Specific activities are being introduced
into the system to assist these contractors through training and procurement
programs. The use of long-term level-of-service maintenance contracts is also being
considered as these contracts can provide emerging firms with a suitable continuity of
work to finance equipment purchase.
At the moment, further measures are being taken to strengthen the private contracting
sector. These include enhancing the development of local contractors and
consultants by offering training, and involving them more in road works contracts and
reforming the contract documents of Government financed projects as required, and
facilitating the establishment of
equipment leasing companies. Government is committed to further assist the

development of the industry based on the findings and recommendation from the
Domestic Construction Industry study.
As a result the participation of local contractors is increasing. Participation of local

contractors/consultants has increased to more than 50% on projects financed mostly
by the GOE - however involvement of locals on big construction contracts is still

9
marginal with contract values averaging ETB 54 million. Besides, ERA is still carrying
out few civil works by its own force account.
Specifically, out of 380 projects (both construction & consultancy) awarded until June
2005, about 200 projects were taken by locals. Classifying, the involvement by type of
service, one can see that the majority (58%) is consultancy service while 37% is in
construction of low class roads.
On the other hand, looking at the value of local contracts, until June 2005, the value of
civil works given out to locals is Birr 3.5 billion while that of consultancy services
awarded to locals amounted to Birr 226.8 million.

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CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT
It is well known that high rise building works involving prefab components and steel
structures form building infrastructures; road, water works and other heavy
construction require heavy equipments. Here in Ethiopia, the first construction
equipment was a steam-operated roller in 1912.this was further introduced by foreign
construction companies’ involvement in the road sector since 1934.
After Italian invasion, some rollers and small-scale stone crushers were left for use in
the construction industry. Further to this, World Bank loan was also used to procure
construction equipment, which was operated by foreign skilled operators. When
private contractors started to flourish, they also have received assistance for their
capacity building with regard to equipment owning ability.
A comprehensive study and management that includes its consideration during

planning and its appropriate selection for efficiency and effectiveness is necessary.
Equipment management system was basically developed for control purposes

including, assets control, service, and financial support, equipment replacement and
system design and specifications while asset control deals with equipment
classification, inventory, and their purchasing strategy, service data and financial
supports were meant for operation data and
financial demands, budgeting and reporting issues; others were for their specific
considerations.

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CONSTRUCTION HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

It is the prime task of mangers to establish decision making and communication
process that would maximize the utilization of human, material and monetary
resources in the line of defined goals and objectives of an organization. Some of the
specific activities involved in each function include: Planning, Organization,
Staffing/Procuring, Leading/Directing and controlling. But the human resource
management focus lies in one of these functions: Staffing or personnel management
or the human resource management .Human resource management is the process of
acquiring, training, appraising and compensating employees, and attending to their
labor relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns.

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INTRODUCTION
The construction of physical infrastructure is contributory for poverty reduction in

developing countries. Roads, as the most crucial part of an infrastructure system, had
been given more attention in Ethiopia because they are the basis for any kind of
economic activity. The purpose of this paper is to identify the difference between local
and foreign contractors as an input for enhancing the road construction sectors.
Because of its long operation in Ethiopia and since most of its staffs are Ethiopians
Varnero, though owned by foreigner, was chosen as local contractor. CRBC was
selected as foreign contractor for the reason that almost all of its key personnel are
Chinese and for they are international contractor. Ethio - China Friendship Road
Upgrading Project constructed by CRBC and Bole Bulbula Bridge and Road Project
constructed by Varnero are chosen as a case-study because;
They were constructed almost at the same time

Their road length is almost the same-two kilometers
Each road’s total contract price was about 30 Million Birr
Availability of information.
In the construction of roads, both local and foreign contractors have participated. In
Ethiopia, local contractors do not participate intensely in road construction. It is the
hope of the Ethiopian government to increase the participation of local contractors in
this sector. We have tried to identify the differences between local and foreign road
construction in their equipment, human and material management along with
assessment of their impact on the road construction industry.
In order to achieve our objective, we have done desk studies (of contract documents
and progress reports), semi-structured questionnaires, and interviews. All these
activities had to be done so that what we have retrieved from one source could be
verified from the other.

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By identifying the differences that exist between local and foreign contractors in road
project we hope to pinpoint the factors that make foreign contractors work with greater
efficiency than their local counterparts.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
In the development of road construction sector foreign contractors had been

participating widely, in contrary the participation of local contractors were limited.
Regarding this ERA had made various researches however, it only emphasized on
why the local contractors were not actively involved with the prime objective of
increasing their participation. But the difference between the local and foreign
contractors had not been well addressed. Thus, this study tries to explore differences
in construction management which are contributory for their difference.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Due to the unavailability of previous studies related to this thesis, we faced difficulties
in finding variables as a base for comparison. Moreover time constraint was inevitable.
Finding two roads, one constructed by local and the other by foreign contractor with
comparative size and time were not easy. Moreover due to
short span of the roads due to the short span of the road it was difficult to find points
that we believed were useful for our study.
The contractors we selected as samples might not represent the whole; Varnero being
locally registered foreign company might not fully represent the ‘by origin local
contractors’.
The research instrument which was employed involved human respondents and the
basic data were obtained by talking to people either face to face or by written
questioner. This gave rise to a problem of dealing with verbal reports, both oral and
written, and thus we were limited to the data which people were able and willing to
respond in the first place. However a non survey method (structured observations)
was employed to verify conclusions rather than taking people at their word.
METHODOLOGY
The basic research design used in this study is an exploratory research methodology
using both primary and secondary data. An exploratory research methodology was
chosen in order to asses the magnitude and scope of problems and facilitate for the
suggestion of solutions. Primary data was obtained from the contractors, clients and
consultants by two means;
1. Interview with stakeholders and construction personnel

The persons we interviewed with their respective job in the road project we
studied;

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From AACRA (The Client)

Eng. Fekadu Haile, AACRA General Manager
Eng. Abera Shibru, Contract Administration Team
From Eng. Zewdie Eskinder & Co. PLC.(Consultant for Varnero)

Eng. Tadele Manbegrot, General Manager
Eng. Metsihafe Mekbib, Resident Engineer
From CRBC
Eng. Fekere
From ERA
Eng. Bekele
2. Through questioners
From Varnero
Mr.Adolfo Varnero
Apart from the primary data obtained through questioners and interviews, secondary
data from documents (project monthly reports), articles, books and website have been
used in conducting this study.
TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS
In this study two roads; Bole Bulbula Bridge and Road, and Ethio - China Friendship
Road which were constructed by Varnero and CRBC respectively. For this interview
questions were prepared. The interview was conducted with key personnel who were
actively worked on the respective sites. Four types of questions were prepared;
General, HRM, Equipment Management, Material Management questions and also
different type for the client, consultant and the contractors.
The interview questions were structured questions designed with the aim of how
construction personnel aware of managing their resources on site and views and
believes of construction personnel regarding resource management practices in their
respective construction and consultancy companies. The resource management
practice explored the interrelation of one resource with the other and also the effect of
individual resource on the road construction project.
SIGNIFCANCE OF THE STUDY

The successful completion of road construction, that is, as specified on schedule and
with in the budget, benefits the entire participant in the construction process including
the client, consultant and contractors. It also benefits the Government through
meeting social needs as planned.

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AIM AND OBJECTIVE
Road construction in Ethiopia is at an infant stage. Since foreign contractors had

exposure in related fields, it was only natural to give the contract to them. As a result
local contractors’ participation in the field had been little to non existent. Due to this,
differences in construction resource management between local and foreign
contractors were to be anticipated. The aim of this study is to identify differences
between local and foreign contractor as an input for enhancing the performance of
road construction sector.
The research questions that help in achieving our aim are:

What are the major differences in local and foreign road construction?
How do we harmonize these differences so that the road construction
sector can be enhanced?

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Chapter - I HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

And Work Scheduling
Managing people is the most vital of all resources in work setting. Managers are
responsible for optimizing all of the resources available for them; material, equipment
and human. All managers must be concerned to activities like Planning, Organizing,
Staffing, Retention, Development, Adjustment, and Managing changes.
Planning
Forecasting human resource requirements and developing strategy in
managing people.
Organizing
Is the process of establishing a structural relationship among functions of
people so as to formulate effective machinery for streamlining the achievement
of assigned objectives.
Staffing
Identifying work requirements with in an organization
Determining the numbers of people and the skills mix necessary to do the work
Recruiting, selecting, and promoting qualified candidates.
Retention
Rewarding employees for performing their jobs effectively
Ensuring harmonious working relations between employees and managers
Maintaining safe and healthy work environment
Development
To preserve and enhance employees competence in their jobs by improving
their knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics.
Adjustment
To maintain compliance with the organizations human resource policies and
business strategies.
Managing change
Is an ongoing process whose objectives are;

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To enhance the ability of an organization, to anticipate and respond to

developments in its external and internal environments
To enable employees at all levels to cope with changes.
MANAGERIAL STYLE
0 autocratic
most of the time not advisable
dictatorial in nature
interest around the leader
decisions are unilateral
00 democratic
Advisable
participative
individual has a say in decision
1.1 PRODUCTIVITY
Productivity is a ratio to measure how well an organization; individual, industrial and

country converts input resources into goods and services. Productivity largely
depends on the type of employees (experienced or newly hired). The productivity of
new employees is lower than that for experienced employees and the hiring of a large
number of new employees initially drives real productivity down. Real productivity
begins to rise as
the new employees gain experience and become more productive. Real productivity
increases towards the end of the project because management stops hiring towards
the end of the project and relies more on overtime to complete the project. The
reduction in hiring results in a higher average productivity as the ratio of new
employees to experienced employees has changed in favor of experienced
employees (the experienced employees have a higher productivity rate).
Some of the reasons why productivity should be measured are:

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¾ For strategic purposes - in order to compare the global performance of the

firm with its competitors or similar firms (Firms can gain a competitive
advantage over competitors by effectively managing human resources.)
¾ For tactical purposes - to enhance management and monitor the
performance of the firm via the performance of individual sectors of the firm
either by function or product.
¾ For internal purpose, such as collective bargaining with trade unions.
¾ For planning purposes - to compare the relative benefits accruing from the
use of different inputs or varying proportions of the same inputs.
People work better when the environment, working methods, and the equipment have
been designed to help them. If we add to this the natural motivation to do a good job
for an appropriate reward, we can confidently anticipate improved productivity.
1.2 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
The ability to attract, retain and develop talented employees is a key feature of a
successful business. People are an organization’s most valuable asset and this is
especially true in relatively low-tech labor intensive industries such as construction.
In particular the complexity and dynamism of the industry's project-based culture

threaten to undermine the applicability of fundamental characteristic of the human
resource management strategy that have been applied successfully in more stable
sectors.
Labor supply is the availability of workers who possess the required skills that an
employer might need and Labor demand is the number of workers an organization
requires. Estimating future labor supply and demand and taking steps to balance the
two requires planning.
Human resource planning is the process an organization uses to ensure that it has the
right amount and the right kinds of people to deliver a particular level of out put in the
future. It is also an indication of labor turnover (percentage of labor leaving the firm

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from total number of recruits). Human resource management is not only recruitment of
new employees but also the tendency of retaining the existing employees. There are
three types of employees, these are;
Existing employees
New recruits
Potential employees
1.3 CONSTRUCTION PLANNING
Construction planning is a fundamental and challenging activity in the management

and execution of construction projects. A good construction plan is the basis for
developing the budget and the schedule for work. Construction planning as well as
scheduling must be done by people who are experienced and thoroughly familiar with
the type of field work involved. It is especially important that those who will be
executed to implement the plan in the field have an opportunity to participate in its
development. The Project network and the management data obtained from it will be
realistic and useful only if the job plan is produced and updated by those who
understand the job to be done, the ways in which it can be accomplished, and the job
site conditions.
The Construction planning may be said to consist of the following steps:

a. Choice of technology and construction method,
b. Determination of the job steps or ‘activities’ that must be performed to
construct the project,
c. Ascertainment of the sequential relationships among these activities,
d. The presentation of this planning information in the form of a network
a. Choice of Technology and Construction Method
In the development of appropriate alternatives for construction planning, choices of

appropriate technology and methods for construction are often not well-structured yet

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critical ingredients in the success of project. For example a decision whether to pump
or to transport concrete in buckets will directly
affect the cost and duration of tasks involved in building construction. A decision
between these two alternatives should consider;
The relative costs,

Reliabilities, and
Availability of equipment for the two transport methods.
Unfortunately, the exact implications of different methods depend upon numerous

considerations for which information may be sketchy during the planning phase, such
as the experience and expertise of workers or the particular underground condition at
a site.
In selecting among alternative methods and technologies, it may be necessary to

formulate a number of construction plans based on alternative methods or
assumptions. Once the full plan is available, then the cost, time and reliability impacts
of the alternative approaches can be reviewed.
b. Determination of job activities/Work Break Down structure/
At the same time that the choice of technology and general method are considered, a
parallel step in planning process is to define the various work tasks that must be
accomplished. These work tasks represent the necessary framework to permit
scheduling of construction activities, along with estimating the resources required by
the individual work tasks and any necessary precedence or required sequence among
the tasks. The scheduling purpose is to determine an appropriate set of activity start
time,

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resource allocations and completion times that will result in completion of the project
in a timely and efficient fashion.
Complex projects consist of numerous smaller, interrelated tasks and work elements.
The end item of a project is a system that can be broken down into subsystems, which
themselves can be broken down and so on. The procedure for dividing the overall
project onto sub elements is called Work Breakdown Structure /WBS/.The purpose of
WBS is to divide the total project into small pieces, sometimes called work packages
or work activities. Dividing the project into work packages makes it possible to prepare
project schedules and cost estimates and to assign management and task
responsibilities.
It is generally advantageous to introduce an explicit hierarchy of work activities for the

purpose of simplifying the presentation and development of a schedule. This
hierarchical structure also facilitates the preparation of summary charts and reports in
which detailed operations are combined into aggregate or ‘super’ activities.
In practice, the proper level of detail will depend upon the size, importance and
difficulty of the project as well as specific scheduling and accounting procedures which
are adopted. However, it is generally the case that most schedules are prepared with
too little detail than too much.
c. Job Logic/ Sequential Relationships or Precedence
Job logic refers to the determined order on which the activities are to be accomplished
in the field. The start of some activities obviously depends on
the completion of the others. A concrete wall cannot be poured until the formworks are
in place and the reinforcing steel has been tied. Yet many activities are independent of
one another and can proceed concurrently. Different types of precedence
relationships can be defined and that each has different implications for the schedule
of activities:

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Some activities have a necessary technical or physical relationship that cannot

be superseded. Example, concrete pouring can not proceed before formwork
and reinforcement are in place.
Some activities have a necessary precedence relationship over a continuous

space rather than as discrete work task relationships.
Some precedence relationships are not technically necessary but are imposed
due to implicit decisions within the construction plan.
For a project of any consequence, there is always more than one general approach
and no unique order of procedure exists. It is the planner’s responsibility to examine
the workable choices and select the most suitable alternatives.
d. Representation Techniques
A Variety of planning techniques are available. The three most applicable are;
0 The Networking Schedule Technique
The Critical Path Method (CPM)
The Performance Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
00 The Bar Charts

000 Line of Balance Chart
0 The Net work Schedule Technique
The Critical Path Method (CPM)
The most widely used scheduling technique is the critical path method (CPM) for
scheduling, often referred to as critical path scheduling. This method calculates the

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minimum completion time for a project along with the possible start and finish times for
the project activities.
The critical path itself represents the set or sequence of predecessor/ successor
activities which will take the longest time to complete. The duration of the critical path
is the sum of the activities’ durations along the path. Thus the critical path can be
defined as the longest possible path through the ‘network’ of project activities. The
duration of the critical path represents the minimum time required to complete a
project. Any delays along the critical path would imply that additional time would be
required to complete a project. Formally, critical path scheduling assumes that a
project has been divided into activities of fixed duration and well defined predecessor
relationships.
Fig1: Critical Path Method
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
The two commonly used network methods for project planning and scheduling are the
program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and the critical path method
(CPM).Both CPM and PERT are termed critical path methods because both use the
critical path to complete expected project duration, early and late times, and slack. But

24
unlike CPM, PERT addresses uncertainty in the duration by using three time
estimates: optimistic, most likely and pessimistic. These estimates then are used to
calculate the expected time for an activity.
Advantage of network scheduling:
Requires and promotes the planner to think logically,

Activities upon which the contractor must concentrate high efforts during the
project are identified in the process of planning,
Non critical activities are also identified and resource leveling is facilitated,
Arguments in support of claims can be developed where some action on the
part of the client or his adverse delays a critical activity.
Disadvantage of network scheduling:
Not readily understood as a graphical statement of the contract duration,

Updating call for a redrafted network from the date concerned. Frequent
updating entails continuous redrafting in a situation of uncertainty and becomes
remote from managerial decision making. A thorough knowledge of the
construction process and of practical sequences is required prior to preparing
the network. This will involve cooperation between site management and the
planner preparing the network. This cooperation is rarely available.
00 The Bar Charts
Bar charts present the project schedule plotted to a horizontal line scale. The bar lines
represent the time period allocated to each operation and the relationship between the
commencement and completion of each can be readily observed. The bar chart has
been the traditional management device for planning and scheduling construction
projects. Bar charts are particularly helpful for communicating the current state
scheduling of activities on a project. As such, they have found wide acceptance as a
project representation tool in the field. For planning purposes, bar charts are not as

25
useful since they do not indicate the precedence relationships among activities. Thus,
a planner must remember or record separately that a change in one activity's
schedule may require changes to successor activities.
Advantages
Useful to report information to people who are concerned about a project but
may not be involved in day-today management.
A simple format and readily understood at all levels of management,

It can provide a quick, visual overview of a project in convenient way to monitor
job progresses, schedule equipment and crews and record project
advancement.
Disadvantages
Interdependences among activities are difficult to show. The bar chart itself
doesn't provide a basis for ascertaining which activities are critical and which
are floaters.
It is not an adequate planning and scheduling tool because it doesn't portray a
detailed, integrated and complete plan of operations.
000 The line of Balance scheduling Technique
The Line of Balance schedules (LoB) are a series of inclined bar lines, one for each
activity. The difference between Line of Balance Schedules and a traditional bar chart
is the balance lines are inclined at different slopes to denote the rate of working of the
various operations.
In developing the schedule, one is required to determine the number of crew to be
availed for each activity with the productivity rate on daily basis. The respective
activities will be indicated with an inclined bar on diagram scaled contract time versus
project units or segments subdivided for planning purposes. If the bars intersect on
the diagram, this will be clear indication that resource has not been properly allocated.

26
Intersection of the bars shows that the crew assigned for a particular activity would
stay idle until the preceding activity is progressed a bit far from the following activity.
This planning system is suitable for housing contract, roads construction, pipe laying
work and the erection of prefabricated buildings of repetitive nature.
Advantages of the Line of Balance Scheduling:
Clearly displays the rate of working of one activity against another,

Relates the requirement of specified resources to the achievement of a planned
completion date,
The schedule clearly indicates the number of units to be completed by a
specific date,
The principles of planning system are readily understood at site management
level. The schedule is easily updated. Actual performance can be compared
with planned requirements at any date.
Disadvantages
Only applicable to repetitive forms of construction,

Summarizes many considerations, lucks details and explanation.

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Fig 2: Line of Balance scheduling
1.4 MAN POWER LEVELING/SMOOTHENING/
Understaffing losses the business economies of scale and overstaffing is wasteful and
expensive if sustained, and it is costly to eliminate because of modern legislation in
respect of unemployment and very importantly, overstaffing reduces the competitive
efficiency of the business. It is advisable to avoid peaks/overstaffing/ and
valleys/understaffing/ of manpower deployment on site and maintain relatively
smoothened or flattened manpower delivery from practical consideration.
Man power smoothening requires an assessment of present and future needs of the
company compared with present resources and future predicted resources.
Appropriate steps then be planned to bring demand and supply into balance.
1.5 EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
To retain good staff and to encourage them to give of their best while at work requires
attention to the financial and psychological and even physiological rewards offered by
the organization as a continuous exercise. Morale does exert an influence on
productivity, but so many factors interact on morale that their individual effects defy
quantification. Normally, pricing of changed work does not include loss of worker
morale.
The degree to which this may affect productivity, and consequently the cost of
performing the work, would normally be very minor when compared to the
other causes of productivity loss. A contractor would probably find that it would cost
more to maintain the records necessary to document productivity losses from lowered
morale than justified by the amount he might recover.

28
Chapter - II CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT

MANAGEMENT
On top of the growth of building infrastructure equipment management plays a key

role for the successful accomplishment of construction project. Construction
equipment management is relevant in the construction industry; resources,
productivity/efficiency, quality and development demand.
Resource:
¾ Human (Capacity and Capability)

¾ Financial
¾ Physical (Material, Equipment and Plant)
¾ Institutional (Management and Production System)
¾ Information (Access and Availability)
For the performances of construction works or services, decision regarding equipment

types in use and their skilled manpower are important. Hence construction equipment
deals with selecting types of equipment such that their combination with other
resources yields the optimum production.
Productivity /Efficiency
Productivity /efficiency can be defined as the ratio of output to input. By means of

using equipment or plants productivity could be increased. In addition, time could be
saved to decrease the production time where time value of money can contribute to
the benefit of a completed project.
Thus Construction management focuses on relationship management among different

types of resources, stakeholders and activities with regard to their planning,
implementation and monitoring for an optimum output, which is productivity.

29
Quality
Use of equipment and plants increase the quality of materials, component and the
whole product of a construction process. This could be achieved through harmonized
and standardized output against variations of quality that could be achieved among
different skilled manpower.
Development
Technological
Social
Economical
Political
Due to intensification of constructing complicated infrastructure such as; Road, Hydro

power works, large irrigation schemes, water supply and sewerage plants and high
rise building; the necessity of construction equipment or plants are decisive. As one of
heavy constructions, road involves large quantities of fluid or semi- fluid materials
such as earth, concrete, asphalt to be moved, sprayed and placed .Thus road
construction is equipment intensive construction work.
Here by the concept of equipment management should be highly introduced and

practiced so as to achieve optimal result. Construction equipment management thus is
referred as the planning, implementation and monitoring of construction equipment to:
¾ Harmonize, standardize and enhance quality of equipment/plants’ outputs,

¾ Enhance equipment/plants’ optimum utilization as a resource,
¾ Invent for the demand of PEST,
¾ Enhance equipment/plants’ productivity or efficiency of the construction
process.

30
For successful completion of a project the following points play an important role in
equipment management,
Proper planning
Selection
Procurement
Operation
Maintenance
Equipment replacing policy.
Equipment Managers
Main tasks of equipment managers are;
¾ To reduce down time
¾ Achieve optimum equipment utilization
¾ Increase production at min cost.
They should also coordinate with various wings of the organization and discharge his
job of:
¾ Equipment planning
¾ Personnel selection
¾ Training
¾ Equipment selection
¾ Balancing
¾ Equipment utilization
¾ Financial planning
¾ Preventive maintenance
¾ General supervision
Thus equipment management integrates and continuously interact with human,

technical, financial and production system in order to achieve top efficiency and cost
effectiveness.

31
2.1 EQUIPMENT PLANNING
Modern construction projects are complex in nature and success of a project depends
greatly on proper planning. Also efficiency of the
whole project largely depends up on its planning. Planning of a construction project

involves:
Deciding about the extent of mechanization

Deciding about the equipment planning
Deciding about the execution planning ...etc
i.Extent of Mechanization
Main factors for the desired extent are; manpower, completion period, nature of work,
availability of money and quality performance. It depends on:
Nature and quantity of work to be handled

The specifications to be adopted
Time period of completion
Availability of skilled and unskilled labor
ii.Equipment Planning
1. Working Shifts – by increasing the number of shifts we can reduce the number of
equipment required, as the same equipment can be used in second and third shift.
It also helps in reducing initial investment (capital). The number of shifts in which
shifts can be executed depends mainly upon the nature of work and the area in
which the work is spread over.
While planning the number of shifts it must be kept in mind that in double shift,
nearly 60 – 70% extra work can be achieved and not really double. Similarly in
triple shift only 110 – 125% of extra work, as compared to single shift, can be

32
achieved. This is because the efficiency in the evening and night shifts is less as
compared to that in day shift besides maintenance also become difficult at night.
Since repair facility for the break downs occurred in the night shifts is not fully
available, provision for stand by equipment is desired. Experience has shown that
this provision should be as below:
For equipment used in single shift ………… 10% stand by

For equipment used in double shift ………….. 20% stand by
For equipment used in triple shift ……………. 30% stand by
Single Shift
Should be used only when project duration is more than 5 or 6 years

When works are located in difficult terrain
When equipment are scattered over a long distance where it is difficult to
provide supporting facilities for a multi shift operation.
Double Shift
Is economical and should be employed whenever possible.
Triple Shift
Results in frequent breakdowns and low availability, which means more

standbys and increase in cost
Should be used only when project duration is less
Immediate repair facilities even in the night are available
Proper lighting facilities in the area exist
2. Number and size of equipment

The main factors which should be considered for number and size of equipment
planning are:
Quantum of work – if the work is too much, higher size of equipment is
required.

33
Working days available for completion of project

Number of shifts planned: available output of this equipment will help in
deciding number of equipment required keeping in mind the factors mentioned
above.
3. Matching units
These are certain equipment which are used together in a team with other
equipment;
Scraper ↔ Pusher Dozer

Concrete batching plant ↔ Truck mounted concrete mixer
Paver finisher ↔ Road Rollers
Asphalt mixing plant ↔ Tipper trucks
Wheels Loaders ↔ Dumpers/ dump trucks, etc
These number and size of the matching equipment should be planned for each
activity, keeping in view that complete matching set must be utilized at the
maximum and combination must be optimum.
4. Workshops and stores planning

While planning for the purchase of equipment, it is necessary to plan for the
workshop and stores for carrying out the repairs and maintenance.
5. Manpower Planning
Planning for manpower in order to operate equipment and to carryout the repair
and maintenance is necessarily done sufficiently in advance.
6. Site Condition
It plays an important role in indicating type of equipment. Type of equipment
selected mainly depends upon:
Soil availability
Valley conditions
Surface strata where work is to be carried out

34
Thus the type of equipment should be selected after knowing the type of work
required to be done by the equipment.
Steps in planning
1. Quantity of work
Calculation of the total quantity of work involved in each operation should be

accurate ( by using detailed drawings, designs and surveying the site)
Categorizing: each operation according to its characteristics, for example; earth
cutting can be cutting of ordinary soil, hard soil or soil mixed boulders, or rock
cutting operation.
Necessary to know the machine hours required to do a particular operation,
since each category requires different machine hour efforts that is output rate
for each category is different for the equipment.
Constraints that should be taken into account while calculating quantity of work:
a. Limitation of working space, which may affect the efficiency of the machine, so
as to assess the output rate of equipment to be used.
b. Location of quarries and amount of material available, so as to know the correct

lead and to asses the efforts involved in shifting the crusher location.
2. Out put and capacity of equipment
Decide the equipment on the basis of its output and capability

The equipment must be capable to handle the work efficiently
The same equipment may produce different output in different conditions of
work. Therefore it is very essential to use the past output data of similar works
handled by the equipment in similar condition.
While selecting, equipment care must be taken so that the equipment is neither
too big nor too small in size than required for the work. It should also be able to
complete the work economically within the completion period. If the equipment

35
is too big it will complete the work before time and its residual value (initial cost
– depreciation) will be high which may not be effectively used after completion
of the job. If it is too small, more number of equipment will be required for
completing the quantity of work involved, which means uneconomical
proposition.
3. Equipment operation planning
Success of a mechanized construction shall be judged by its low cost, timely

and safe completion; therefore it is essential that operation should be well
planned. Main points which should be considered while planning for equipment:
I. Equipment must work in coordination, especially when they are required to

work in a team and their operation would be planned in such a way that there is
no waiting at any place.
II. Proper working and the maintenance of auxiliary equipment should also be
insured. Since the auxiliary equipment may be small in size may affect the
whole activity and thereby idling all the equipment used in the team.
III. Poor maintenance of service roads may result in more cycle time of trucks,
dumpers etc besides causing more downtime.
IV. In order to ensure proper operating of equipment and to eliminate delays it is
necessary to ensure scheduled maintenance in addition to watching the work of
the operator.
V. Safety on the work is a must: in order to ensure proper safety, equipment must
be kept in good condition, operate them properly, working area should be well-
lighted and observe proper traffic control.
VI. Good workmen should be given proper incentives - helps in increasing the
production
Proper records should be maintained for production equipment operations

maintenance, breakdown, consumption of stores and spare parts, repair etc
Help in future estimation
Reviewing the plan in addition to the cost accounting of equipment and
evaluating the process of work

36
2.2 Selection of Equipment
Proper selection of equipment for a construction project is of vital importance for its
speedy and economical completion. For proper selection of equipment, a considerable
experience in the operation and maintenance in the field is essential.
Main Points to be Considered in Equipment Selection
I. Suitability for job conditions: the equipment must meet the requirement of the
work, climate and working conditions
II. Size of the equipment: the size of the equipment should be such that it must be
able to be used with other matching units.
III. Standardization: it is better to have some type and size of equipment in the
project:
More interchangeability of parts, if required
Easy for the operator to understand it
Machines will be able to maintain and repair better as they become
expert by handling one type of equipment.
IV. Availability of spare parts
Increasable price
The down time of equipment for want of spare part may not be more
V. Multiple purpose equipment
There are certain types of equipment which are not utilized fully thus if
possible, they must be capable of performing more than one function
VI. Availability of know how

Sophisticated equipment may give excellent performance but it may be
difficult to handle and maintain it through available know how.
VII. Use in future project
VIII. The economic aspects
Cost of unit production should be minimum

37
IX. Reliability of the equipment

X. Operating requirement
The equipment should be easy to operate and maintain
The equipment should be acceptable to the operator
The equipment should have lesser fuel consumption
Versatility
It means machines which can be used for many jobs. It allows one machine to do a
job of several machines and thus cutting into ownership and operating costs
associated with additional plant and labor. Besides it increase utilization, which means
a machine earns money when it might other wise be idle.
Equipment operation planning also plays important role in equipment planning

process. Main points to consider while planning for equipment are:
¾ Equipment must work in coordination, especially when they are required

to work in team.
¾ Proper working and the maintenance of auxiliary equipment should also
be insured.
¾ Poor maintenance of access roads may result in more cycle time of

truck, dumpers etc. besides cause more downtime.
As mentioned, equipment management is vital in successful completion of a project

with effective cost and time. A good knowledge of equipment management would lead
an organization to use its equipment equipment efficiently.

38
Chapter - III MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
Materials management is an important element in project planning and control.

Materials represent a major expense in construction, so minimizing procurement or
purchase costs presents important opportunities for reducing costs. Poor materials
management can also result in large and avoidable costs during construction. First, if
materials are purchased early, capital may be tied up and interest charges incurred on
the excess inventory of materials. Even worse, materials may deteriorate during
storage or be stolen unless special care is taken. For example, electrical equipment
often must be stored in waterproof locations. Second, delays and extra expenses may
be incurred if materials required for particular activities are not available. Accordingly,
insuring a timely flow of material is an important concern of project managers.
Materials management is not just a concern during the monitoring stage in which
construction is taking place. Decisions about material procurement may also be
required during the initial planning and scheduling stages. For example, activities can
be inserted in the project schedule to represent purchasing of major items such as
elevators for buildings. The availability of materials may greatly influence the schedule
in projects with a fast track or very tight time schedule: sufficient time for obtaining the
necessary materials must be allowed. In some case, more expensive suppliers or
shippers may be employed to save time.
Material management hence involves:
Planning of material needed (quality, quantity, standard, type …)

Order of material
Purchasing of material
Delivering of material
Application of material
Material storage ……………etc
When choosing material during planning and scheduling stage its availability at time of
execution should be predetermined. This would help in preventing shortage or lack of
material once the work starts which would last long and affects project time.

39
Chapter - IV ETHIO – CHINA FREINDSHIP

ROAD UPGRADING PROJECT
4.1 GENERAL
The Ethio - China Friendship Road is located in Addis Ababa and links the Debrezeit
Road to the Bole International Airport Road. It has a total length of 2.214Kms. The
existing road was asphalt road with 7m width.
Not to interfere with the fly over structure to be constructed at Gotera junction, the
construction is started from sta. 0+120 onwards. The work comprises the construction
of the reconstruction of the sub grade, the pavement, the drainage structures, route
lighting and road furniture and markings, all as per the design and the specification.
The new design incorporates two way three lane roads on each side with one meter
median and four meter walk way in each side. The pavement design is also done after
analyzing the sub-grade bearing capacity, the traffic flow for the design period and
availability of construction material, the design period for the project is 15 years.
This project started on September 25th, 2003 with March 22nd the completion day. The
contract price for the project was 30,000,000 birr with project duration of 180 days.
The source of fund for the project construction was from the Government of The
Peoples Republic of China. This project was under implementation with Addis Ababa
City Roads Authority, AACRA as the employer, Transport Construction Design Share
Company, TCDSCo as the consultant and China Road and Bridge Corporation
working as the contractor.
The completed road had been handed over to the client on March 22, 2004 and it was
open for the public as of Dec 17, 2003. And the contractor was expected to work on
the outstanding work during the defects liability period.
CONSULTANT’S PROJECT ORGANIZATION CHART

40
AACRA
Contr act Adminis tr ation
Divis ion
T CDSCo.
Re s ide nt Engine e r
Habtamu Ayale w
Sur ve yor Quantity Str uctur al Ele ctr ical Mate r ial
Sur ve yor Ins pe ctor Engine e r Ins pe ctor
MAJOR PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AND SOLUTIONS
Problems encountered in the construction of Ethio - China Friendship Road Upgrading

Project were:
Incomplete design
Obstructions in the right of way
Late commencement of work
Weather condition
Contractors lack of compliance with instructions and comments from engineers

representative.
Lack of material
Not informing supervisor prior to the execution of the work.
Illegal connection of sewer line to the longitudinal pipes of the project
Damage to their partly completed wok due to the un programmed relocation
and reconstruction of utility companies

41
Repeated interruptions by utility companies

Demobilization of equipment prior to the completion of major works.
To solve the design problem that came across their way, as the contractor had
experienced designers, CRBC redesigned almost the entire design instead of waiting
for the consultant. In addition, the right of way problem did not affect the progress of
the work. This is because high attention was given by the Government since Ethio -
China Friendship Road upgrading was one of the first roads upgraded in the
Government program of construction, rehabilitation, and modernization of the road
infrastructure network.
The role of the contactor in working out the right of way problem:
Surveying the site
Identify the problem
Determine the specific location
Timely notify the client
They were also involved in demolishing. Due to their smooth contractual relationship
with the client, they equally participated in the situation. The representatives of the
Utility companies; Telecommunication, ELPA, AAWSA were present on site to
facilitate the progress. As a result the right of way problem was not as such a big
issue for the contractor.
Their equipment were idle only for short period of time because of the short duration
of the project and possession of numerous equipment. Therefore when equipment
broke down, it was replaced instead of waiting for it to be maintained.
The drainage structures of the project are designed to accommodate only storm
water, however closing of in let structure caused by improper removal of waste dry
garbage by the community found at the project corridor. And as a result of this,
overflowing of dirt water collecting from the upstream was seriously affecting the
proper serviceability of both the carriage way and the drainage pattern of the
completed contract project.

42
Immediate action had not been taken to alleviate the problem of illegal connections of
sewer line to the longitudinal pipes of the project; due to this illegal connection has
increased. In order to solve the above mentioned problems the consultant suggested
the following:
The society should be aware the drainage classification and participate to

remove dry waste in the proper place in order to alleviate the closing of the
project drainage system.
The employer had to ask the utility companies to solve the problems related
with them.
The contractors’ lack of compliance with instructions and comments from engineers’
representative and problem of not informing the supervisors led to a lot of
misunderstanding, inconvenience for the construction and reconstruction of some
parts of the works.
ADVANTAGES OF THE CONTRACTOR
At the time this project was under execution CRBC was involved in other road
projects. This allowed them to position their plants, material and other accessories
to be placed at their central plant, Kaliti. So land availability problems were not a
subject of concern.
The client, AACRA was quick in solving problems. The contractor was not
expected to follow formalities, whenever they had encountered a problem they
notified the client over the phone and immediate action was taken.

43
4.2 PROJECT ASSESSMENT
4.2.1 HUMAN RESOURCE
The role and responsibility of stake holders were according to Clause 2 of Ministry of
Works and Urban Development (MoWUD). To achieve what is required of the
contractor, liquid finance was not a setback.
The human resource department carryout many activities related with employees.
Depending on the information received from the project manager, they assess
manpower demand for each project, and then they would engage in:
Hiring (Most of the personnel employed were Chinese)

Assigning responsibility
Monitoring
The project manager was responsible for human resource planning process. The
consultant and client also take part in revising the preliminary program (used only for
the contract agreement) for resource prepared at the central office.
To facilitate the activities on site the project manager with out the consent of his
superiors take quick measures when ever it is necessary. He can ask for any
employee he want to work with him, the central office then would send him from
central plant or other project. Or some times he might even hire employee at site level
and inform the central office. This makes the project manager equally responsible with
the central office in decision making
process. Since more number of individual are in decision making process we can say
CRBC follows decentralized managerial style.
RECRUITMENT

44
Total Human Resources are disaggregated into new employees and experienced
employees. New employees are hired from the human resources pool and move to
experienced employees as they again experience working on the project. Both new
employees and experienced employees would be retained and transferred to the next
project, but during rainy season the unskilled labors would be laid off and be hired
back when the project resumes. New hiring is not considered when a project
approaches its completion but it is done whenever new equipment is introduced. In
order to retain their skilled labors they:
Transfer them to a better job but it mostly relies on the laborer effort, this is to
mean that the laborer has to be hard worker if he/she needs promotion.
Give bonus for all workmen that partake in the work, when there is early
completion but its not as such attractive
Small extra payment for all workmen that partake in the work, when there is
early completion
Source of recruitment:
From local market
From other contractors
Transfer from completed project
Since this project is equipment intensive, personnel requirement is related with

productivity. Which is the number of personnel requirement is largely dependent on
the number of machines necessary for the work.
So they estimate personnel requirement by:

Exercising managerial judgment
Planning technique, Bar chart
For the execution of this road project bar chart had been used due to its short
duration. However, while working on ring road they used CPM for estimating
manpower deployment.

45
Using Bar chart techniques for the planning process were useful due to the nature of
the work:
simple
small in size
Also because of the above reasons there was not conspicuous gap between their
planning and the actual work.
Productivity
Productivity of the workers had not been measured because they think it was not
necessary for equipment intensive projects. Even if they had not measured
productivity they rewarded their employees (in group bases) for good performance.
Motivation and Incentives
There were not noticeable incentives to motivate their workmen except:

Occasionally Clothes
Sometimes bonus
Provision of Overtime and shift Work
Over time
Some times they offer overtime depending on the nature of work:

when there was an urgency to complete work
To achieve scheduled performance
Working overtime would increase efficiency of the work by motivating employees

through income increment and also increase productivity thereby decreasing life time
and overhead cost.
Shift work

46
They allow their workers to work in double shift because;

It was originally scheduled to work in shift
Of the Short duration of the project
In other cases they use shift work when the project delayed is due to default by the
contractor. There was serious supervision during working in shift. Like over time work
working in shift also increases efficiency of the work.
4.2.2 EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT
In this project mechanization was fully desirable; as a result the need for daily laborer
was less.
The job description CRBC use for the equipment manager was the one that has been
practiced in China and also it is written in Chinese. Since the managerial style they
follow was not centralized, the equipment manager had full power in decision making
for every activities related with equipment on site. For instance he is responsible for
hiring or firing of the equipment operator, and if the equipment needs spare he can
automatically order for it to be repaired.
The Ethio - China Friendship Road upgrading project was under construction at the
same time as the Addis Ababa ring road. Their proximity allowed shifting of
machineries from one to another and this had been controlled by the central office.
Equipment schedule was part of the project’s work program, depending on the
schedule equipment were assigned to its respective task.
All equipment supplied by the contractor were owned and these are;
Crane Roller
Dozer Water Tanker
Jack Hammer Crashing Plant
Compressor Asphalt Distributor

47
Paver Concrete Mixer

Hand Driven Roller Concrete Vibrator
Grader Trucks
Excavator
Excavator with Breaker
Sheep Foot Roller Asphalt Plant
Dump Truck Aggregate distributor
Wheeled Distributor Steel Cutter
Bar Bending
Mold
EQUIPMENT SELECTION
Factors considered in equipment selection are:

suitability for job condition
standardization
availability of spare parts
Multipurpose equipment
In order to achieve the required efficiency they choose to use a known brand like
KOMATSU and CAT even though there were equipment manufactured in China.
SHIFT WORK
In the execution of this project the number of shifts employed was double. This is the
workers had to have work day and night. The crew that worked in the day shift would work
extra time till the night shift replaced them and vice versa.
EFFICIENCY
Operators’ efficiency was only measured through the number of trips they made. Their
equipment operators were both experience oriented and trained from Alem Gena training
center and they will be assessed for their operating ability.

1
Comparison of Road Construction by Local and Foreign Contractors in Ethiopia ( Bole bulbula and Ethio-China
friendship road)
c
The problems CRBC faced regarding equipment operation are;

Equipment operators left to other sites for a better salary
Since the working area of the site is in urban environment there was
loss of efficiency due to high traffic.
For a very short period of time (few hours) their equipment were idle
due to working condition /high traffic/, right of way problem and
down time.
WORK SHOP AVAILABILITY
Their work shop /spares/ was located at central plant, Kaliti and for those
machine parts that repeatedly wear and tear spares were always available in
the warehouse. According to the machines specification equipment were
periodically maintained.
SERVICE ROAD
They were working on one side of the road while the other was open for the
public, crew and machineries. So there weren’t any problem of service road
except sharing the service road with the public.
4.2.3 MATERIAL MANAGEMENT
Major construction materials used are;

Local; Cement and reinforcement
Imported; Bituminous Asphalt, road light, columns, lumps,
railings
Quarry; Aggregate, rock and soil
Availability of materials was one of the constraints in material supply but it

didn’t affect the project substantially because they ordered the material
prior to the time they were needed.

42
friendship road)
c
Their major sources for local material were with in Addis and the supplier
from abroad include; United Arab Emirates and England. Shortage of
material did not occur as they had strictly followed their program.
The location of their ware house was in the central plant, Kaliti and there
were not any problem related to the ware house.
The project manager was responsible for material planning and identifies
the material requirement on site and communicates with the central
management. The central management orders materials in bulk and stores
in the ware house and distributes as per the projects need.

43
friendship road)
c
Chapter - IV BOLE BULBULA BRIDGE AND

ROAD PROJECT
5.1 GENERAL
The period Bole-Bulbula Bridge and Road Project was the time the Addis
Ababa City Administration was implementing a wide program of construction,
rehabilitation and modernization of the road infrastructure network. This
program was carried out under the management and the coordination of the
Addis Ababa City Roads Authority, AACRA. The Road upgrading project is
part of this program, as a major link road from the Ring Road at Saris Abo
Church to Bole Bulbula area.
AACRA as an employer and Eng. Zewdie Eskindir & Co. PLC. as a

consultant had signed a consultancy service of detailed engineering design,
tender document preparation and construction supervision of Bole Bulbula
Bridge and Approach Road Project on the 17th of April 2003. The construction
contract was signed on June 09, 2004, commenced on June 29, 2004 and
was completed on June 28, 2005 as per the signed contract document. The
original contract price was 29,167,845.60 with project duration of 365
calendar day.
The road project was constructed by Geom. Luigi Varnero Impresa

Construzioni PLC. and supervised by Eng. Zewdie Eskindir & CO. PLC.
The completed road had been inaugurated on the 3rd of July 2005 in the
presence of the Mayor of Addis Ababa, employer, contractor, consultant,
invited guest and the people in the locality.

44
friendship road)
c
PROJECT ORGANIZATION AND CONTRACTUAL RELATIONSHIP CHART
Employer
AACRA Contract
administration division
Utility companies
Government Policy Consultation
department direction
AACRA Construction
Supervision division
Engineer’s approval of
Employer’s approval
monthly certificate
and payment of monthly
Engineer’s recommendation
certificate
on additional revised work
Consultant Contractor
Instructions and works
order related to quantity
Project Manager Project Manager
and quality control
Routine monthly certificate check Claims for

additional payment/ time extension

45
friendship road)
c
CONSULTANT’S PROJECT ORGANIZATION
AACRA
Eng. Zewdie Eskindir and Co Plc.
Resident Engineer
Yohannes Tsegayie
Assistant Resident Engineer

Metsihafe Mekbib
Senior Structural Structural Material

Surveyor Inspector Engineer Inspector
MAJOR PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AND SOLUTIONS
Problems encountered in the construction of Bole Bulbula Bridge and Road

Project:
Obstructions in the right of way
Late commencement of work
Price escalation on oil products and ordinary Portland cement
Access road
Availability of sand
Weather condition
Inefficient works managements on site
Land availability
Most of the time the contractor monthly achievement versus his monthly plan
was satisfactory but not to the schedule. This is due to the above mentioned

46
friendship road)
c
problems, including rainy season which made some of the works start late. In
order to finish the project before the
rainy season and in the contact time, the contractor subcontracted the asphalt
works to CRBC.
Due to unexpected soil condition the contractor was working overtime forcing
them to rent extra trucks. But these trucks are costing the contactor extra
expense because they have low efficiency when compared to their own
trucks.
Change in oil products price falls under the clauses of the general condition of
contract change in legislation resulting in claim for the effect this change on
the contract prices. At the same time the contractor claims for extension of
time due to late handover of the site.
The claim for the extension of time was not granted because the contractor
believed the claim was not based on facts and supporting document. But the
claim for change in oil products price had been approved because it was on
the general condition of contact.
The contractor worked overtime without giving prior notice in writing and
without the consent of the consultant.
The problem of right of way was inevitable because the site was located in the
urban area. According to clause 42 the site handing over was done in phase,
they worked on the cleared side till the remaining
site would be handed over. But the handing over took about eight months due
to;
Existence of illegal slump houses

A choice to demolish between the Abo Church or illegal houses was to
be made.
Existence of plantation

47
friendship road)
c
The above obstructions together with others made the right of way problem
the major restraint for the contractor. The role of the contactor in working out
the right of way problem was only informing the client
Sometimes, their equipment were also being idle due to the right of way
problem. Because of overlapping of schedule occurred they mobilized their
equipment (dozer) prior to part of excavation so they were forced to hire
dozer.
As a result of superiority nature, the contractor was not submissive to the

consultant. Sometimes client also interfered with the work of consultant. This
resulted inconvenience for the construction and led to reconstruction of some
parts of the works. Lack of obedience on the contractor side affected the good
relationship between the contractor and the consultant.
5.2 PROJECT ASSESSEMENT
5.2.1 HUMAN RESOURCE
The role and responsibility of stake holders were according to Clause 2 of

Ministry of Works and Urban Development (MoWUD). To achieve what is
required of the contractor, liquid finance was not a setback.
There is no human resource department in Geom. Luigi Varnero Impresa

Construzioni PLC to carryout activities related with employees. The general
manager who is also the project manager then had to engage in;
Hiring
Assigning responsibility
Monitoring

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friendship road)
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Most of the time the project manager was not available on site, making the
superintendent to be the sole decision maker. To facilitate the activities on site
the superintendent with out the consent of his superiors take necessary
measures when ever it is required. Or some times he / she might even hire
employee at site level and inform the central office. This makes the
superintendent participant with the project manager in decision making
process.
RECRUITMENT
Total Human Resources are disaggregated into new employees and

experienced employees. New employees are hired from the human resources
pool and move to experienced employees as they again experience working
on the project. Both new employees and experienced employees would be
retained and transferred to the next project. New hiring is an option when a
project approaches its completion depending on size and volume of remaining
work.
In order to retain their skilled labors they:

Transfer them to a better job
Give bonus
Source of recruitment:
From local market
From other contractors
Transfer from completed project
Since this project is equipment intensive, personnel requirement is related

with productivity. Which is the number of personnel requirement is largely
dependent on the number of machineries necessary for the work. And they
estimate personnel requirement by exercising their managerial judgment.

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friendship road)
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The planning technique; bar chart, had been used for the execution of this
road project. There was conspicuous gap between their planning and the
actual work while executing work.
PRODUCTIVITY
Productivity of the operators was measured through the number of trips they
made.
Problems that affect productivity:

Bad weather
Down time of equipment
Motivation and Incentives

There were incentives to motivate their workmen:
Increment of salary
Bonus
Provision of Overtime and shift Work

0 Over time
Some times they worked overtime:

when there was an urgency to complete work
To achieve scheduled performance
As an incentive to their workers.
Working overtime would increase efficiency of the work by motivating

employees through income increment and also increase productivity thereby
decreasing life time and overhead cost. The disadvantage of over time work
for the contractor was it squeezed them financially.
00 Shift work
They do not allow their workers to work shift.

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friendship road)
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5.2.2 EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT
In this project mechanization was fully desirable; as a result the need for daily
laborer was less.
Because Bole-Bulbula Bridge and Road site was located in urban area, it
allowed mobilization and demobilization of machineries. Equipment schedule
was part of the project’s work program, and depending on the schedule
equipment were assigned to its respective task.
Equipment owned by the contractor;

Crane
Dozer Crashing Plant
Jack Hammer Asphalt Distributor
Compressor
Hand Driven Roller Concrete Vibrator
Concrete Mixer
Grader Trucks
Excavator Excavator with Breaker
Sheep Foot Roller Steel Cutter
Dump Truck Aggregate distributor
Wheeled Distributor Roller
Bar Bending
Mold

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friendship road)
Equipment rented by the contractor;

Water Tanker
Pavers
Dozer
Asphalt plant
Excavator
EQUIPMENT SELECTION
Factors considered in equipment selection are:
suitability for job condition
multipurpose equipment
availability of spare parts
SHIFT WORK
In the execution of this project the number of shifts employed was single. That is
the workers had to do work only during day time.
EFFICIENCY
Their equipment operators were only experience oriented and their efficiency was
only measured through the number of trips they made.
The problems Geom. Luigi Varnero Impresa Construzioni PLC.
faced regarding equipment operation are;
availability of equipment operators
Their equipment were idle, for a month due to lack of spare parts, and
for a day or two due to right of way problem and down time.
Break down of the hired dozer
WORK SHOP AVAILABILITY

Work shop /spares/ was available near the site.

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friendship road)
5.2.3 MATERIAL MANAGEMENT
The superintendent was responsible for material planning and identifies the
material requirement on site and communicates with the Project Engineer.
According to the need, the warehouse was located with in the project and radius of
three kilometers.
Major construction materials used are;
Cement
River sand
Crushed aggregate
Stones
Excavated and borrow materials
Reinforcement
Asphalt
Of these, Asphalt and Reinforcement bars were imported. However there was also
a time they used locally available reinforcement bar till the ordered one arrived.
SOURCES OF MATERIAL
Their major sources for local material were ‘Muger’ Cement factory, G/Meskel
G/Michael General Importer, ZUSROM. Even if cement
unavailability occurred once, shortage of material was not as such a big problem.
In general resource constraint and space limitation did not pose any problem on
the progress of the project.

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friendship road)
Chapter - VI COMPARISION
6.1 CHINA ROAD AND BRIDGE CORPORATION
TENDERING AND CONTRACT
Their strategic role is to achieve the highest competent in the market

through being dedicated to their work and fulfilling clients need.
They are willing to do off-contract work if the client asks.
They had international experience in bidding, so they were smart in
winning contracts. (They know where to increase and decrease unit
price rate, there by offering fair price.)
CONSTRAINTS
Language communication barrier

Design problem
High labor turn over
WORKING CONDITION
There was firm relationship between the client and the contractor.
Immediate actions were taken by the government to work out the right of
way problem encountered and
Their approach in dealing with stake holders was not pleasant.
There was understanding problem of consultant with the contractor
The relationship between the top personnel and the workers were
dictatorial.
There was strong supervision
High labor turn over

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friendship road)
The contractor way of work execution was fast moving and ahead of the
schedule.
They were committed to their work
They reported mistakes that the consultant had not seen and take
corrective measures.
They had problem of accepting others opinion.
They used overtime work more effectively because there was strong
supervision of the workers.
Working in double shift was advantageous in increasing equipment
utilization.
They were willing to solve problems on their own; they act equally with
the client in order to quicken things up.
The project manager was always available on site.
TECHNICAL AND MANAGERIAL ASPECT
Mostly they are experience oriented

They were not familiar with most of technical terms
Most of them were not skilled (they are not highly qualified)
Most of them were not trained with all tasks, this implied one person had
a know how of not more than a single task.
They were effective in managing human resource.
They managed their equipment efficiently.

They usually worked with the already tested materials instead of
following the specification.
They are not cost conscious.

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friendship road)
6.2 GEOM. LUIGI VARNERO IMPRESA CONSTRUZIONI PLC.
TENDERING AND CONTRACT
They are not willing to do off-contract work if the client asks.

They usually participated in contract type they previously had
experience with
CONSTRAINTS
Untimely handing over of the site

Unfavorable climatic condition during execution of earth work
Most of the communication was verbal
Lack of construction drawing
Cement production constraints
Price escalation of fuel
Asphalt plant
WORKING CONDITION
The contractor is less flexible

The contractor under estimated the consultant in decision making.
Sometimes job interference of the client with the consultant.
The contractor way of work execution was not fast moving and beyond
the schedule.
The project manager used power in order to make the crews work so
hard.
The relation ship between the top personnel and the workers were too
harsh to the extent that the managers might insult and hit the workers,

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friendship road)
this caused the workmen not to take full responsibility in particular

matter and also let the workmen to blame one another.
There were high labor turn over of daily laborer, surveyor,….in the
contrary very low for the highly qualified personnel.
The project manager was not always available on site.
In order to complete the project on time they were forced to use
overtime work and to subcontract the asphalt work to CRBC but the
overtime work was not effective.
They worked only in single shift thus lose the advantages gained by
using double shift.
They don’t solve problems on their own only notify the consultant.
Immediate actions were not taken by the government to work out the
right of way problem encountered.
Project Manger
Mr. Alberta Varnero
Project Engineer
Mr. Adolfo Varnero
Construction
Superintendante
Senior Works Chief Material

Surveyor Manager Mechanic Inspector
Fig. Break Down the Field Office
From the figure above VARNERO follows more of centralized structure; decision
arises from the center (from very few people). The owner at the same time being
the project manager is engaged in two activities. The project engineer who is also

58
friendship road)
the son of the owner was appointed in a lot of duties unrelated with this project.
Due to engaging in multiple activities at the same time, the project manager as
well as the project engineer was not available on site were in times they should.
This shows there was no well defined responsibility for each position. Often the
construction
superintendent took the responsibility of the project engineer; however the

engineer did not delegate his full responsibility.
Thus the consultant faced many difficulties related with the decision made by the
superintendent; it’s because the project manager may interfere and disagree with
the decision. This interference then holds up the progress of work in some ways.
The key staffs below the superintendent performed the responsibility of their
specific task except the surveyors who were not able to stay on the job.
The managerial style they follow was autocratic in nature. This type of managerial
style is not advisable because it is:
Dictatorial
Only concentrates on the interest of the leader and
Decisions are unilateral

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friendship road)
Chapter - VII CONCLUSION &

RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
In the execution of road it was customary to give road contract to foreign

contractors because they have experience in related fields. But there is
misconception that experience means good quality of work. Local contractors have
little or no experience in this field. And these led to a significant difference between
local and foreign contractors, in this case between Varnero and CRBC:
Even if the client priority is completion of the road project in short duration, it
was the efforts made and the technique followed by CRBC that allowed them
to finish the road in half the time taken by Varnero. CRBC was almost all the
time before schedule whereas Varnero most of the time behind schedule.
As CRBC is fully owned by foreigners and the fact that it is an international

contractor their financial capability is higher but still they did not give full
attention in motivating their employees except little group incentives. This
results in high labor turnover. Due the fact that almost all of the key personnel
were Chinese sense of nationality towards the labor may arise, this affected
the working condition. Because all of their personnel were foreign we can’t
say all are qualified, there are Chinese who did not have the qualification
certificate. Some were also unfamiliar
with technical terms and this caused the consultant difficulty in working with
them.
Varnero were only worried about execution of work according to the

specification, they were not flexible to do off-contract works. Varnero were
less flexible when dealing with matters which means they were too strict for
addition and omission of work. Most of the time, they were not ready for

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friendship road)
changes (Addition and omission of works). Since Varnero had a problem of

underestimating any works not done by them, working with Varnero was no
easy task for the consultant.
Varnero only wanted to deal with their actual work, for any barriers that
came across their way they always notify the client and wait for the solution
even if it takes long time. Unlike CRBC which was always ready in problem
identification and solving which helps in facilitating the working condition.
Concept of using equipment to its’ full depreciation were missed by Varnero

since they only allowed their equipment to work in single shift. They
sometimes had a problem of assigning the right equipment to the right job.
On the other hand CRBC was good in their equipment selection as well
utilizing by allowing their equipment to work day and night.
The consultant goes through a lot in absence of the Varnero’s project

engineer or manager on site. They almost not present on site when they
should. The superintendent who was an architect has some difficulty on
structural problems he used to come to the consultant for an advice. This

unassignment of the right person to the right job was noticed. On the other
hand the project manager of CRBC was always on site to facilitate the working
condition.
Due to its reputation on the road construction and execution of ring road at
that time CRBC had used materials that are not tested for this specific road,
this arises the question of quality. The same problem also reflected on
Varnero but at different angle. Varnero did not have qualified and trained
laboratory personnel. This lack of trained staff caused delay and also there
were times untested materials were delivered to the site.
These differences that had been seen on Gotera- Wellosefer Road Upgrading and
Bole Bulblula Bridge and Road Projects resulted in deviations in time and cost. In

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friendship road)
the construction industry good contractors’ objective is timely completion and

minimization of unnecessary cost of project without sacrificing the required
performance and quality.
The following points are recommended to minimize the difference between local
and foreign contractors so that the road construction sector is enhanced:
Just like for the foreign contractors, the government rule of import/ export,
importing of spares, should be relaxed for local contractors.
The infrastructures’ project management regulation related with equipment

possession has to be revised. Great concern should be given to
professionalism, not to the number of equipment owned by the contractor.
The liquid finance spent on accumulating equipment could be used for
actual construction. This also helps in increasing financial capability of the
construction companies which in turn increases their active participation in
problem identification and solving in time.
In managing equipment it is always good practice to utilize equipment to

the limit of its useful life. This would only happen if the contractor use its
equipment in double or triple shift or rent the equipment when not needed.
Like other countries, if rental companies were abundant, equipment would
always be in use by one contractor or another. This would support the
principle that equipment should be used from buying time to its salvage
time.
Provision and strictly following of sharp schedule; this could be achieved by

assigning the right equipment and personnel (Qualified and with Technical
know how) at the right time and cost to the right job, there by meeting the
scheduled contract period and minimizing unnecessary cost.

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friendship road)
Contractors should let their equipment perform diverse tasks.
Change of contractors’ way of thinking; Contractors aim should be to keep

their reputation through improved quality of work instead of only
maximizing profit.
A custom of working only at day time (8hrs) should be avoided, local

contractors should practice working in double shift for the benefit of
efficient utilization of their equipment and for reducing contract time by
almost half.
The client and the Government shouldn’t only be attracted to speedy work
and low cost. They should also give good attention to quality of work.
In general, by analyzing their differences and trying to learn what they lack from
foreign contractors, local contractors’ competitiveness with the foreign could be
increased and as a result the road sector would be improved. The government has
to play a vital role by treating both local and foreign contractors equally or if
possible give inducement to local contractors as they will take greater part in
alleviating the unemployment rate of the country.

63
Progress Summery
Months 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th
Elapsed time to date CRBC - 37.2 54.4 71.7 87.8 105 128 - - - - - - -
Varnero - 15 24.5 33 41.1 50 - 67 75 83.3 91.6 100 108 116
Work Accomplished to date Vs CRBC - 108 90.2 84.5 86.2 90 97 - - - - - - -
Planned in percent
Varnero - 62.6 46.7 43.4 52.3 63 - 67 78 82 80 103 108 0

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friendship road)
Reference
Construction Management 2nd edition by Daniel W Halpin w.wood

Construction Equipment and its Management by S.C Sharma
ERA’s eight years assessment of RSDP II
Managing Human Resources 3rd edition by Luis R. Geomez-Mejia
Balkin Carday
Managing Human Resource 6th edition by Wayne F. Casio
Human Resource Management in Construction Projects Strategic
and Operational Approaches by Martin Loosenmore, Andrew
Dainty and Helen Lingard.

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APPENDIX - 1 PROPOSAL
Topic
Comparison of road construction by Local and foreign contractors in

Ethiopia.
Goal
To identify the differences between local and foreign road contractors as an

input for enhancing the performance of road construction sector.
Context
The construction of physical infrastructure is contributory for poverty

reduction in developing countries. Road, as one of the main infrastructure
components, has been given more attention in Ethiopia due to lack of highly
developed infrastructure. The Federal Democratic Republic of the Ethiopia
government at present is working very hard to develop all sorts of
infrastructure, particularly road since it is the basis for any kind of economic
activity. In the construction of these roads both local and foreign contractors
are engaged.
This thesis envisages exploring differences in construction technology and
management contributory for differences in time, cost and quality
accomplishment and assessing their impacts on the enhancement of
performance in road construction sector.
Problem statement
The problem statement is the identification of difference in local and foreign

road construction and assessment of their impact on the construction
industry. Major question that need to be addressed is:
What are the major differences in local and foreign road
construction?
Concept
The topic is based on project documents with specific considerations to:

Construction Technology
o construction Method
o Problem of construction
o Quality of construction
Construction Management

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friendship road)
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o Contract price
o Resource
o Claim
o Claim
Method
This research involves:

Desk study of the general and specific conditions of contract and
previous paper on similar case
Close study of project report on sample projects
Research instruments: Semi-structured interview professionals
with relevant experience and Stake holders (Contractor,
Consultant, Client)
Survey study: Project observation
Data source: from Addis Ababa City Road Authority and
Ethiopia Road Authority
Data collection: Semi-structured interview professionals with
relevant experience and Stake holders (Contractor, Consultant,
Client)
Data analysis: comparative study, analysis of differences
Objective
To identify differences and evaluate the impact with sub objective to pinpoint
the reason why the local contractors are not actively participating in road
construction compared to foreign contractors, search for the impact, analyze
and finally coming up with recommendations relevant to the context.
Process
Definition of topic
Formulating proposal
Context development
Research instrument
Sample identification
Survey study
Thesis writing

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friendship road)
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Action plan
ITEM ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION DURATION COMPLETION

NO IN WEEKS DATES
1 Topic - May 23, 2006
Proposal
Guidance One week May 25, 2006
2 Group review May 28, 2006
Check list May 31, 2006
Approval June 1, 2006
Submital June 2, 2006
Contextual Development
Guidance One weeks June 6, 2006
3 Group review June 8, 2006
Check list June 10, 2006
Go ahead June 13, 2006
Research Instrument
Guidance One and a June 13, 2006
4 Group review half weeks June 14, 2006
Check list June 20, 2006
Go ahead June 22, 2006
5 Sample Identification June 22, 2006
6 Survey Study
7 Data collection One and half July 3 , 2006
weeks
8 Analysis July 4 , 2006
Guidance Two and July 7 , 2006
Group review half weeks July 11,18, 2006
Check list July20 , 2006
Go ahead
9 Thesis writing Two weeks August4 , 2006
10 Presentation To be Decided by
department
Resource Requirement
Item
No Description Amount in ETB
1 Transportation cost 1200
2 Secretarial service 100
3 Coping and printing expense 300
4 Collection of documents 100
5 Stationery expense 50
6 Phone expense 150
Total expense 1900
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Appendix 2 Interview questions related to equipment

management
1. Does the equipment manager/engineer has job description? If yes

list……………….
2. Were there scheduled reports regarding equipment
input.........................
3. To what extent mechanization is desirable? .........................
4. Of the equipment deployed on the project how many were
owned/hired?
Crane Crashing plant
Dozer Asphalt Distributor
Grader Paver
Excavator Asphalt plant
Roller Aggregate distributor
Water Tanker Wheeled distributor
Trucks Hand driven roller
Excavator with Concrete mixer
breaker Concrete vibrator
Jack Hammer Steel cutter
Compressor Bar bending
Sheep foot Roller Mold
Dump truck
4.1 What was the advantage and disadvantage of your

selection?....................
4.2 Did you face any problem related with availability of
equipments? .........................
5. Which factors did you consider in equipment selection?
Suitability for job condition
Size of equipment
Standardization
Availability of spare parts
Multipurpose equipments
If other, please list
6. How many working shifts did you have for your equipments in this specific
project (if any)? .........................
Single
Double
Triple
7. Do your equipment operators are:
Experience oriented
Trend from suppliers
Trend from Alem Gena training center
8. Do you measure your operator efficiency? How? .........................
9. Which of the following are recurrent problems in equipment operation
Availability of trained personnel
Information monitoring system
Working condition

69
Comparison of Road Construction by Local and Foreign Contractors in Ethiopia ( Bole bulbula and Ethio-China friendship
road)
c
Down time
If other , specify
9.1 What do you think were the causes? And what effect did they have
on the project?.......................
10. Did you have workshop /spares/ available near the site? ..............
11. How often equipments on site do checked for maintenance?
Weekly
Monthly
If other, specify
12. Was there a time your equipment was idle? If yes, .........................
12.1 Why? .........................
12.2 For how long? .........................
12.3 Were there any significant effects on the total project? ..
13. Did you encounter problem of service road? .........................
14. Was there a time you were forced to use equipment due to the
unavailability of labor? .........................
Interview questions related to human resource management
1. Do you have human resource management department in your organization?

If yes, ………………….
1.1 What were the main tasks of the manager? ………………….
1.2 What type of managerial style do you use? …………………
2. How did you recruit your employees? (New/ previously hired on similar
projects). After completion do you transfer them to the next project?
……………….
2.1 What were your sources of recruitment?………………….
3. How did you estimate personnel requirement? ………………….
By exercising managerial judgment,
By planning technique such as CPM, PERT, and Bar chart
By statistical technique,
if others state………
4. What approach did you incur to retain your skilled labor? ……………
Job transfer, to a better job
Provision of bonus, extra payment
If others please state………….
5. Who was responsible for resource planning process in this specific
project? …………………
5.1 Was he/she a participant in the execution of work after
planning? ……………….
6. Was it effective using Bar chart in your planning technique? Why did you
chose it?..............
7. Did you encounter problem while you tried to work out according to your
resource planning? If yes, …………………
7.1 Was there a gap between your planning and actual work?
7.2 What measure did you take /if any/ to narrow the gap?....
8. Did you evaluate productivity of your employees? If yes, ……
8.1 On what basis?
8.2 Where there any problems that affect their

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productivity? Please specify,.................
8.3 Where there any reward for good performance?...

9. Were there any incentives for employees (operator, supervisor,
labors………..? If yes list.........................
10. Were there any labor dispute? If yes, ………………….
10.1 What consequence did it result on the project? ………….
10.2 How did you handle it?...........................
11. Did you offer your workers to work overtime? If yes,………………….
11.1 Why?....................
11.2 What were the merits and demerits?.....................
11.3 Did it affect your efficiency?............................
12. Did you make your employees work in shifts? ………………….
12.1 Why?..................
12.2 What were the merits and demerits?.......................
12.3 Did it affect your efficiency?................................
13. Do you have any motivation for your workers? How? ………………….
14. Were there any group formed between the labors? If yes,………………
14.1 Did it have any adverse effect on the project? ......................
15. Have you ever faced resource constraints? .......................................
15.1 What effect did it have in the utilization of human resource?...
16. Did you have problem of space limitation? ........................
16.1 What effect did it have in the utilization of human resource?...
17. Have you ever considered new hiring in order to finish a project on time,
even if there are already experienced labors, at the end of a
project?...................
Interview questions related with material management
1. What were the major construction materials you used in this project? …
1.1 Did the availability of these materials affect the progress
of this construction?.......................
2. Did you face difficulty regarding material supply? ………………….

2.1 how far was the source?…………………
2.2 Who were your major suppliers?......................
3. Were there times that shortage of material occurred? ………………….

3.1 What measures did you take? ………………….
4. Where was your warehouse located? ………………….

4.1 Have you encountered problems related with warehouse?
5. Who was responsible for material planning process in this specific

project? ………………….
5.1 Was he/she a participant in the execution of work after

planning? ………………

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General Interview questions
1. What was the role of stakeholders? ………………

1.1 Client
1.2 Contractor
1.3 Consultant
1.4 If other list
2. Were there constraints in liquid finance? ……………….
3. Was there a problem of right of way? If yes,……..
3.1 What was it?
3.2 How did you solve it?
3.3 Did it have any effect on the total project time?
4. What was the role of stakeholders in the right of way issue? ...
4.1 How did you handle the situations arising due to right of way?
4.2 Did the problem of right of way affect the total completion
time of the project?
5. Have you had land availability problem? If yes, how did you solve it?
6. How was the contract agreement regarding time?......................
6.1 What constraints you had for not executing the work according to
schedule?
6.2 Have you worked over time during this project?
6.2.1 What is the advantage/disadvantage of this?
7. What influence did the stakeholders put on your performance? (If any)
8. Was there an agreement with the client concerning payment for overtime on
your contract? Did it have an effect on the total project cost?...................
9. Did you provide all the necessary resource (equipment, material) according to
the contract?
10. Were there any argument regarding equipment/material on site? If yes,
10.1 What was the cause?
10.2 How did you solve it?
Interview Questions for the Consultants
1. Why was AACRA late in handing over the site?

2. Why was the problem of right of way not solved in time?
3. If the project wasn't handed over to the contractor in time, why wasn't the
contractor granted extension of time and additional cost?
4. How was the condition of their equipment?
4.1 Were there a time their equipments were idle other than in relation
with right of way problem?
5. Did the contractor have sufficient spare parts for their equipment?
5.1 How was the performance of their operator?
6. How was their human resource management?
7. Was the planning system they used (Bar Chart) effective enough?
8. Was there any effort made by the contractor to complete the project according
to schedule?
9. How was the relationship between the parties (Client, Consultant, and
Contractor)?

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10. Why did you say the clients claim for extension is not based on facts? (while
it was repeatedly mentioned on the progress report that there was problem of
right of way)
11. In the construction of wing wall cracks had occurred at Abo site. What was the
cause? (Wasn't the contractor using the right material and mix design, if yes
what kind measures were taken?)
12. It was repeatedly reported on the progress report that rain was

73

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Comparison of Road Construction by Local and Foreign Contractors in Ethiopia ( Bole bulbula and Ethio-China friendship road)

Advisor: Eng. Fekadu Haile

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

We would like to dedicate our thesis for our late friends:

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

We owe the success of this paper to AACRA General Manager Eng.

We also would like to express our sincere and heartfelt gratitude to

And finally, earnest thanks to AACRA, Geom. Luigi Varnero Impresa

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

 CRBC – China Road and Bridge Corporation

 ZUSROM - Ziqualla Steel Rolling Mill Enterprise

 HRM - Human Resource Management

 AACRA - Addis Ababa City Road Authority

 AAWSA - Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority

 ELPA - Ethiopian Light and Power Authority

 ERA - Ethiopian Road Authority

 GOE - Government of Ethiopia

 TCDSCo - Transport Construction Design Share Company

 RSDP - Road Sector Development Program

 Varnero - Geom. Luigi Varnero Impresa Construzioni Plc.

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

ROAD CONSTRUCTION IN ETHIOPIA

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

INVOLVEMENT OF LOCAL CONTRACTORS IN ROAD WORKS

equipment leasing companies. Government is committed to further assist the

As a result the participation of local contractors is increasing. Participation of local

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT

A comprehensive study and management that includes its consideration during

Equipment management system was basically developed for control purposes

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

CONSTRUCTION HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

The construction of physical infrastructure is contributory for poverty reduction in

 They were constructed almost at the same time

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SCOPE OF THE STUDY

In the development of road construction sector foreign contractors had been

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

1. Interview with stakeholders and construction personnel

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

From AACRA (The Client)

From Eng. Zewdie Eskinder & Co. PLC.(Consultant for Varnero)

TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS

SIGNIFCANCE OF THE STUDY

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

AIM AND OBJECTIVE

Road construction in Ethiopia is at an infant stage. Since foreign contractors had

The research questions that help in achieving our aim are:

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Chapter - I HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

 To enhance the ability of an organization, to anticipate and respond to

Productivity is a ratio to measure how well an organization; individual, industrial and

Some of the reasons why productivity should be measured are:

Department of construction technology and management……………………………………….Aug, 2006

¾ For strategic purposes - in order to compare the global performance of the

1.2 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING

CRBC – China Road and Bridge Corporation

ZUSROM - Ziqualla Steel Rolling Mill Enterprise

HRM - Human Resource Management

AACRA - Addis Ababa City Road Authority

AAWSA - Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority

ELPA - Ethiopian Light and Power Authority

ERA - Ethiopian Road Authority

GOE - Government of Ethiopia

TCDSCo - Transport Construction Design Share Company

RSDP - Road Sector Development Program

Varnero - Geom. Luigi Varnero Impresa Construzioni Plc.

They were constructed almost at the same time

To enhance the ability of an organization, to anticipate and respond to

The relative costs,

Some activities have a necessary technical or physical relationship that cannot

Some activities have a necessary precedence relationship over a continuous

The Critical Path Method (CPM)

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

Requires and promotes the planner to think logically,

Not readily understood as a graphical statement of the contract duration,

A simple format and readily understood at all levels of management,

Clearly displays the rate of working of one activity against another,

Only applicable to repetitive forms of construction,

Deciding about the extent of mechanization

Nature and quantity of work to be handled

For equipment used in single shift ………… 10% stand by

Should be used only when project duration is more than 5 or 6 years

Is economical and should be employed whenever possible.

Results in frequent breakdowns and low availability, which means more

Working days available for completion of project

Scraper ↔ Pusher Dozer