Risk factor prioritization in infrastructure handover to operations

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Rodrigues, Thiago de Almeida and Ojiako, Udechukwu and Marshall, Alasdair and Mota, Caroline Maria de Miranda and Dweiri, Fikri T. and Chipulu, Maxwell and Ika, Lavagnon and AlRaeesi, Eman Jasim Hussain (2024) Risk factor prioritization in infrastructure handover to operations. International Journal of Project Management, 42 (1). 102558. ISSN 0263-7863 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2023.102558)

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Abstract

Worldwide, there are numerous reports of major infrastructure projects failing at handover to the operations phase following completion of the project development and delivery phase. While poor risk identification and prioritization has been identified as one of the causes of this failure, we know little about the specific risk factors project beneficiaries consider most important at this point of handover. With these issues in mind, we draw on a survey of key dry port project beneficiaries in Brazil to examine and prioritize the risks considered most important at handover to operations. Paying particular attention to project beneficiary heterogeneity and incongruence, we find eight key risk factors – ‘Cost’, ‘Location’, ‘Infrastructure’, ‘Accessibility’, ‘Operational’, ‘Economic’, ‘Political and social’, and ‘Environment’ that warrant emphasis. We reveal congruence among some project beneficiaries in terms of prioritization. We also find variations in handover to operations risks based on project characteristics. However, these characteristics appear to have very limited impact on prioritization. Our findings further point to risk blind spots at critical moments of project handover to operations. Overall, this paper contributes to project risk management/prioritization literature in the context of handover to operations.

ORCID iDs

Rodrigues, Thiago de Almeida, Ojiako, Udechukwu ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0506-2115, Marshall, Alasdair, Mota, Caroline Maria de Miranda, Dweiri, Fikri T., Chipulu, Maxwell, Ika, Lavagnon and AlRaeesi, Eman Jasim Hussain;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)