Effects of Digital Technologies on Performance of Construction Projects in Kenya

Abstract

The adoption and uptake of technology in the construction industry in Kenya has gained interest among stakeholders due to increased competition in the industry. The challenges and performance of these technologies and innovations remain vague and are not clearly understood due to its low adoption in the country. The low adoption of modern technology in the Kenya construction industry has made the constructor rely on old techniques which are time consuming causing projects delays and cost escalations. A general motivation for the use of modern construction technology can be that more and more developers seek contractors that can construct faster, in a more productive manner and even deliver complex projects. Therefore, the main objective of the study was to establish the impact of digital technologies on performance of construction projects in Kenya with a case study of Nairobi City County. The study was guided by four specific objectives which are; to assess the impact of selected digital technologies on improving design and management of construction projects in Nairobi City County; to establish the impact of selected digital technologies on quality of construction projects in Nairobi City County; to establish the effect of selected digital technologies on the project implementation period on construction projects in Nairobi City County and to determine the effect of selected digital technologies on cost of construction projects in Nairobi City County. The study literature review is anchored to the technology adoption life cycle theory and diffusion of innovation theory. A descriptive survey research design was applied for this study. The target population were construction stakeholders which include Architecture, Project managers, Engineers and Quantity surveyors. The construction projects were sampled to mega projects that have a budget of Ksh 500,000 million and above. The researcher used purposive sampling method to select 50 construction projects where two questionnaires were administered in each site. The desired sample size was 100 respondents. Data was obtained through review of relevant project documents, structured questionnaires and physical site observations. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings of the study revealed that all the selected technologies were adopted by various contractors in Kenya. However, each contractor had few technologies adopted. The finding revealed that all the technologies had a significant impact on the design and management, quality, project period and cost of the projects as depicted by the various responses from the respondents. From the regression model it was noted that the variables included were explained R-Square 90.1% and Adjusted R-Square 89.6% of the variation performance of project. This means that the study variables if adopted would cause a positive variation in project performance by 90.1%. The study concluded that the selected technologies 3D printing (3DP), data analytics, wearable technologies, mobile technologies, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality has a significant effect on overall performance of construction project. The study clouded that the various technologies when adopted would improve design and management of the projects, cause improvement on quality of the projects as well as construction period and cost. This study therefore recommends the improvement of this model by including more variables that are relevant in explaining the variation, some of which have been mentioned above. This study also recommends further research to include studies in other government departments apart from exceptional events on performance of construction project.