Managing uncertainty in fast-track construction projects: case study from South Africa

While academic researchers have proposed various theories for managing risk and uncertainty in construction projects, most of the propositions are conceptual in nature and based on analytical modelling approaches rarely used in practice. This research was triggered by an observation in which a R1·5 billion (∼US$100 million) fast-track New Universities Project in South Africa was successfully delivered within budget despite up to 74% of the project scope not being capable of being priced by the contractor at the start of construction. The aim of this paper was to examine the client’s delivery-management approach used to manage uncertainty and deliver within budget successfully. The evidence from document analyses and interviews with the client delivery-management team members shows that setting a rigorous control budget, designing to the budget, working collaboratively, disciplined management of the control budget and continuous value engineering were the key client management techniques used to manage the high degree of uncertainty and deliver the project within budget successfully. Given that these are client-led delivery-management issues, the findings fill an important gap in the knowledge and understanding of how infrastructure project outcomes can be significantly improved on when the client functions as the leader of the infrastructure delivery process.