Project critical success factors: A study of linear transportation projects

Transportation projects have played a critical role throughout United States history dating back as far as the transcontinental railroad and the interstate highway system authorized under the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956. Massive transportation initiatives such as these have proven to be key drivers of the economy, with resulting highways, rail lines, and air-freight infrastructure serving as the lifeblood to economic growth and opportunities associated with interstate commerce and globalization. Resource requirements and failure costs on transportation projects remains significant, resulting in the need for further exploration of specific factors impacting project performance. There have been prior attempts to identify generic project critical success factors; however, upon review of the literature, there is minimal information on a standard set of factors unique to transportation construction projects within the United States. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the efficacy of existing success factor constructs within the framework of linear transportation construction projects, and to gain insight into factors that transportation construction managers view as critical in achieving project success. A qualitative research method and multiple case study research design was used for this project and was conducted in two phases; the first requiring completion of a survey, and the second being completion of follow-up interviews with randomly selected respondents. Research findings indicated that in the transportation construction industry, organizational culture, project management maturity, and external constraints such as utilities and environmental permitting, must be leveraged effectively to ensure success of the project. Recommendations for future research included replication to a larger pool of potential respondents to include perspectives from both engineers and contractors which would gather a wider range of insights into the identification of transportation related CSFs and their role in influencing project success.