Abstract:
Despite the fact that construction industry is a main contributor in development of
a country, it imposes negative impacts on economy and environment. As we know,
wastes in construction industry have always been causing significant problems like
cost overruns, time delays, and quality compromises, especially in developing
countries like Pakistan. A lot of work has been done internationally on determining
different causes of waste, its contribution to waste generation and evaluating
percentages of waste of different materials. However, there is a lack in research on
the contribution of construction waste on the micro level in Pakistan.
This research therefore focuses on analyzing the most vital and frequent causes
contributing to the various construction wastes in Pakistan and its overall impact
on cost, time, quality and material of the project. Almost 120 questionnaires of
well-designed structured questionnaires were distributed in two phases among
architects, civil engineers, contractors, and quantity surveyors etc. All the factors
contributing to non-value adding activities were identified by going through the
literature and personal observation made by visiting ongoing projects. The top ten
factors were finalized after the first phase by calculating the Relative Importance
Index (RII) of each factor. Furthermore, construction professionals were asked to
provide contribution of these factors affecting cost, time, quality and material
based on their experience and knowledge in the construction field. In the second
phase the subject matter experts were asked to score their judgments about these
ten factors generating waste in construction projects in Pakistan for its overall
quantification and validation. Finally, the data collected were statistically analyzed
and processed. Moreover, interviews of construction professionals were conducted.
Based upon their recommendations, mitigating measures to minimize waste in
construction projects in Pakistan were added in this report. The top three factors as
extracted from the data collected from the construction professionals and validated
by the data collected from other subject matter experts shows that the top three
factors contributing to the construction wastes in Pakistan are lack of training and
awareness to workers, lack of waste reduction/poor management plan and
inventory issues respectively.
