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Road transport is one of the most popular and practical means of transport in the world today. Road transport has developed alongside the development and evolution of humans. The first steps of humans were made to seek food, discover the natural environment, and protection from various natural hazards (Kotsios, & Folinas, 2020). Hence there has been a global push for timely and efficient road construction projects. Yet, road construction projects are delayed despite billions of dollars the government is spending for fast and proper development of the road sector (Ogweno, Muturi & Rambo, 2016). According to Munyao (2011), the construction industry faces challenges of delays and disruption of work, especially government-sponsored projects. Time, cost, quality, and safety are among the various reasons why public projects are delayed. Construction delays have become a sore in the construction sector (Mahamid, Bruland, & Dmaidi, 2012). Though global competition and profitability goals can lead to businesses engaging in fast economic decisions and investment, the desired results or benefits may not be achieved over time. Thus, there would be cost and schedule overruns in projects because of too many goals and the improper allotment of financial resources (Galli, 2022). Munano (2012) defines the completion of a project as the stipulated delivery time frame in line with a drafted contract. Road stakeholders are the end users of roads, stakeholders need to complete road projects timely (Murithi, Makokha & Otieno, 2017).
The unidentified Critical Success Factors (CSFs), cause the rising number of project failures in the construction industry (Garbharran, Govender & Msani, 2012). The client and road users will be negatively affected by the late delivery of the road project since they are the beneficiaries. Kamanga and Steyr (2013), state that contractors and clients are both negatively affected by construction delays. Disputes and costs may occur between parties because of the late completion of projects. For example, the Roads Authority Company charges interest fees for completion delays, thus the constructor may object to paying these charges. However, in several studies on road projects undertaken by Shimete and Wall (2017) as well as results from NDP4 Reports (2012), issues of lack of capacity, resources and lack of experience to undertake road construction projects are still prevalent.
Few studies have been done on CSFs concerning road construction projects locally, but many studies have been conducted in the global context (Young & Mustaffa, 2013). CSFs are essential in understanding the challenges facing the road construction sector (Heizer & Render, 2006). Moreover, even if organizations are considered successful for a limited time it is not sufficient to just praise these companies. What is more important and relevant is to identify critical success factors that are behind such success to help others to repeat their successes (Baporikar, 2018). The CSFs method results in identifying a set of CSFs that represent key performance areas that are essential for the organization to accomplish its objectives (Baporikar, 2013). Developing countries may share knowledge on identified CSFs since they are similar in construction industries, however, some industries may not directly use CSFs identified in another industry (Garbharran, Govender & Msani, 2012). Complexity in the design and the involvement of stakeholders cause challenges in the delivery of modern construction projects (Tammy et al., 2015). It is also worth noting that the major role that the road construction sector plays in the economy and its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is thus a big contributor and thus it is of utmost importance to avoid the negative impacts caused by project delays (Tammy et al., 2015). With this background, the core objective of this study is to explore the CSFs for the timely completion of road construction projects in Namibia.