Contractor’s Capacity and Implementation of Performance Based Road Maintenance Contract Projects on Class a Roads in Kenya: a Case of Class A2 Road by Kenya National Highways Authority

Abstract

Kenya is implementing Performance Based maintenance contracts to enhance quality of roads and reduce overall construction costs. Kenya National Highways Authority has ensured that all Class A Roads by Kenya are under a PBC maintenance project. However, most projects are not implemented within time, budget and schedule due to various contractor related factors. Previous studies were conducted on contractor related factors affecting construction contracts in general without focusing on PBC maintenance projects. It is from this knowledge gap that this research was to determine how contractor’s capacity influences implementation of Performance Based Road Contract Maintenance Projects on Class A Roads in Kenya, a case of Class A2 Road by KeNHA. The objectives of the study were to investigate how contractor’s construction experience, (b) contractor’s financial capacity (c) contractor’s technical capacity and (d) contractor’s leadership capacity influence implementation of Performance Based Road Contract Maintenance Projects on Class A Roads in Kenya. The research was limited to PBC road maintenance projects on Class A2 Road in Kenya due to international importance of the road for trade and movement of people between Kenya and Ethiopia. The study was guided by resource-based theory and theory of constraints. The survey design adopted was descriptive design. Target population was 106 comprising of 8 contractors, 8 road managers, 8 site supervisors, I Resident Engineer, 2 Assistant Resident Engineers, 9 Engineers, 15 road inspectors, 5 finance officers, 5 procurement officers and 45 road users. Taro Yammane formula was used to arrive at a sample size of 84. Contractors, road managers, site supervisors, Resident and Assistant Resident Engineers were selected by purposive sampling. Sampling for Engineers, road inspectors, finance and procurement officers was done by simple random sampling and road users by stratified sampling. A pilot study was conducted on Turbi – Moyale which is one of the PBC maintenance projects of along Class A2 Road to check the validity of the questionnaires. Content validity was confirmed by my study supervisor. Cronbach alpha method tested Reliability of the instrument which gave reliable alpha values at above 0.9 for all variables. The research instrument was open and close ended questionnaire. Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis showed the relationships between variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to find out how independent variables affect the dependent variable. Research model was tested using F statistics at 95% confidence level. The findings were contractor’s construction experience account for 84.5% influence on implementation of PBC contracts on Class A Roads in Kenya, contractor’s financial capacity 90.2%, contractor’s technical capacity 79.2% and contractor’s leadership capacity 78.5%. Combined influence of all variables was 39.7% influence on implementation of PBC contracts on Class A Roads in Kenya. In conclusion, contractors’ capacity influence implementation of PBC contracts on Class A Roads in Kenya. Recommendations were made to government to allocate adequate funds for road maintenance. Road agencies were advised to adopt these results for continuous contractors training on what PBC road contracts entails, requirements and their implementation.