Critical factors affecting schedule performance of transportation infrastructure projects in the Eastern Districts of Ho Chi Minh City, VietNam

Abstract The study area is composed of Ho Chi Minh City’s East Urban Area including District 2, 9, and Thu Duc where have been oriented by the City’s Government to become the urban intelligence, a place to create Highly Interactive Innovation Districts with innovation development model applied for all aspects of economic, human living, eco environment, smart infrustucture and networking. Transportation infrastructure is one of the most important factors to contribute to build the future smart city in this area. However, in fact, many projects have been delayed directly affacting the development of this area that can slow down the progress of creating intelligent districts. The aim of this study is to investigate factors that influence the schedule performance of transportation infrastructure projects in the East of Ho Chi Minh City to contribute to the project management works. To achieve the goal, the survey conducted with 10 experts and 185 people working in this type of project implemented during the period from 2011 to 2018, using statistical analysis of responses on the attributes and factor analysis to group into six critical factors. Regresstion analysis was also used to test hypotheses and revealed that three groups of factors including Finance; Site compensation; and project fluctuations are strongly affecting the schedule performance. As a consequence, based on the interviews conducted with experienced practitioners, recommendations to deal with these factors are proposed.