Cost Overrun and Impact Assessment of Addis Ababa’s Light Rail Transit Construction Project
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Date
2014-09-26
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Transportation is the back bone of success in economic activities, it is necessary that a mass
transit system like rail systems be constructed for efficient transportation of commuters. As a
result of the growing emphasis on environmentally “clean” alternatives to private vehicles,
transport ministries and public transport companies have been concentrating more on the
expansion or development of transport systems that combine urban, suburban and regional
transport, in which light rail systems linked to subway systems and major railways form a
cohesive network (ILO, 1994).
To facilitate rapid change and development the Ethiopian national urban transport policy
(ENUTP) requires ensuring adequate efficient and high quality transport infrastructure to
guarantee efficient mobility of goods and people .Although the proposed ENUTP of goods and
people seeks to achieve these goals there are challenges which slow it down the most adequate
being inadequate infrastructure in the current network arising from certain constraints.
(Yetenayet, 2012)
To alleviate this problem Ethiopia in its GTP (Growth and Transformation Plan) plans to
construct more than 2395 Km standard gauge railway by Phase-one. As part of this phase – one
plan, Ethiopia is constructing a Metropolitan electric railway in Addis Ababa which has a total
length of 34.25 km (North-South line 16.9 km and East-West line 17.35 km) the two lines
(North-South and East-West) use common track of about 2.7 km. and is designed to fit for
elevated, at grade and below grade transportation and access. It has a high carrying capacity of
15,000 PPH (passengers per hour). (ERC,2014)
The construction cost management of such a large project is very demanding and the
construction cost of light rail transit project is relatively high in comparison road projects.
Therefore the main purpose of this research is to assess the construction cost management
practices being conducted in Addis Ababa’s light rail transit project with the aim of identifying the presence and cause of cost overrun in the project and discuss mitigation measures which can
be implemented in future railway projects.