A study into the impact of the architect’s site instructions on construction project delivery in Ghana - perspective of the contractor
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Date
November 2015
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Abstract
Deficiencies in construction drawings, unexpected site conditions, client requests etc. enable the architect to sometimes make modifications during the construction process through Architect’s Site Instructions (ASI) based on authority he derives from the contract. However, this existing practice of delivering instructions to contractors appears to often fall short of effectively communicating the information necessary to get works executed. This research was a study into how such instructions impacted on the delivery of construction projects based on the following objectives namely; to identify the prevalence of the architect’s site instructions (ASI) on construction projects in Ghana, to identify the factors that determine the effectiveness of ASI when issued to contractors, to find out the various bottlenecks that may hinder the administration of ASI, to find out how ASI affect construction project delivery in Ghana and to suggest recommendations to improve its effectiveness. Purposive sampling method was used to identify participants for the study based on extensive literature review resulting in 128 questionnaires being sent out and a response rate of 54.7% obtained. The instruction to vary works was the most common, complexity of works was the most predominant factor which influenced its administration, verbal instruction was the most predominant medium and the strongest bottleneck was found to be the clarity of instructions. The ASI in its present form adversely impacted on construction project delivery and led to cost and time overruns as was established by the findings. Simplification and greater detailing of designs and contract documents, regular organization of pre-construction training / orientation of contractors, uniformity in instructions, introduction of instruction tracking mechanism and fast tracking of approval processes for change orders were among some of the recommendations suggested.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Building Technology, College of Art and Built Environment, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in
partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Science,