Risk management framework for highway construction projects in Nigeria

Poor performance of highway construction projects in developing countries can be attributed to the lack of understanding and application of risk management. However, risk and uncertainty of highway projects in the developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, (e.g. Nigeria) has been under-researched compared to countries elsewhere in the world. Thus, this research aims to develop a new risk management framework to improve the management of highway infrastructure construction projects in Nigeria. Thirty-five risk factors and risk management processes and techniques were identified through a comprehensive literature review. A questionnaire survey and case study interviews were adopted to seek for the opinions of Nigerian highway experts on the possibility and consequence of occurrence of those risk factors, as well as the risk management processes and techniques currently used. One hundred and twenty-eight questionnaire surveys were completed, and thirteen interviews were conducted on four cases of on-going highway infrastructure construction projects in Nigeria. The criticality of each risk was calculated to determine the top nine most critical risk factors affecting the performance of highway infrastructure construction projects in Nigeria. External risks were found to be more critical and have significant consequence on the performance of highway infrastructure construction projects in Nigeria compared to internal risks. Based on the findings from the literature reviews, the questionnaire survey and case studies, a new highway project risk management framework has been developed. For each of the top nine most critical risks identified, practical mitigation measures have been developed and evaluated. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 16 Nigerian highways experts involved in four distinct on-going highway infrastructure construction projects in Nigeria to validate the framework. The validation feedback shows that the developed framework is user-friendly, cost effective and suitable for developing countries, as it does not involve complicated processes.