Abstract
Infrastructure plays important roles in the development of cities, improvement in the quality of lives and overall socio-economic development and growth of economies. Infrastructure projects are, however, fraught with uncertainties regarding costs, benefits and performance. These uncertainties, if not accurately predicted in the planning of projects, could result in undesirable financial, social and economic consequences. The aim of the current paper is to identify critical factors which influence transport infrastructure performance forecasting outcomes and which should essentially be considered in order to minimize or eliminate errors. A review of related literature was conducted from journals, conference proceedings, magazines, theses and dissertations using databases including Science Direct, Emerald, Ebscohost, Academic Search Complete and ASCE library. The studies reviewed were based on international and South African context. Results revealed that project characteristics including size of project, capacity improvement and time lapses between construction life cycle phases, availability and type of data used, methodology used as well as traffic demand factors influence the outcome and validity of transport infrastructure feasibility studies. The study provides invaluable information to built environment professionals and stakeholders as well as infrastructure policymakers in accurately assessing probable outcomes, positive, in terms of benefits and negative, with regard to costs of proposed projects in order to avoid financial and economic risks. In addition, the study will be indispensable to infrastructure financiers and developers in effective allocation of scarce construction/development funds.