Abstract
Project delays in construction environment are still observed, both in South Africa and worldwide. In South Africa, Gauteng Cluster Distribution department Eskom, project delays disrupt the economy growth and affects the electricity delivery. The has been many attempts done by researchers to minimize the project delays effects globally. However, the project delays in construction environment remains high despite the studies already conducted.
In total, allocated twenty-three participants from Eskom took part in semi- structured interviews. The selected participants consisted of those have knowledge in substation projects to ensure that that the research has in-depth information. The chosen participants were those who previously worked on the Eskom Gauteng Gluster Distribution substation projects. In addition, the selected participants were to be involved from start to completion of the project.
The participants managed to give details during interviews interaction and substation project failure and project success root causes. The interview interaction allowed the participants to give opinion where problem lies and gave input on what can be done to minimize the causes of project delays.The project delays findings during the semi-structure’s interviews were classified as, poor designs, material related issues, ineffective quality process, lack of teamwork, internal challenges and processes, lack of accountability from project resources, late delivery of task, lack of consequences by nonperforming stakeholders, inexperience contractor and lacks resources support during construction, inexperience project team and poor project planning.
The study recommended Eskom to consider the following recommendations to minimize the project delays, implementing an effective lesson learn knowledge management, proper project planning, effective project management methodology to address all causes of project delays mentioned, formulate a training structure for all project team to be equipped on how to manage project effectively and management to support the PM during the project PLCM phases. The study has demonstrated it is feasible to minimize the impact of substation project delays in Distribution department, Gauteng province, Eskom because the study managed to identify the project delays primary causes because it addressed the project delays in substation projects which is among one of the critical project type categories. Furthermore, substation projects success allows the electricity supply to readily available required by the customers in the Distribution network. Moreover, it contributes to the Government target plans to electrify households. Therefore, the study recommends Eskom to adopt this finding to effectively manage their...