Kamma, R C and Jha, K N (2026) Significant causes of construction waste in road projects. International Journal of Construction Management, 26(6), pp. 944-959. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
Construction and demolition (C&D) waste generation is inevitable in construction projects. Understanding the causes of waste generation is paramount to addressing the generated waste and moving towards sustainable construction. Past studies have focused on examining causes of waste generation in building projects and grouping them into causes of design, procurement, storage, and handling. However, the material-specific causes of waste are less explored for road projects. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by identifying the material-specific significant causes of waste generation in road projects. The material-specific causes of waste were obtained from an extensive literature review and expert opinion. A questionnaire is subsequently disseminated to construction professionals working in road projects through random sampling and the collected data are analyzed using SPSS software. Initially, data are analyzed to rank the causes of waste using mean scores, and multiple linear regression is then used to test the hypothesis and identify the material-specific significant causes. The results of this study help construction practitioners manage waste effectively and efficiently by establishing waste management practices addressing the significant causes and moving towards sustainable construction.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | causes of waste; construction and demolition waste; material waste; road projects; sustainability |
| Index terms: | waste generation, road project, construction waste, sampling, construction professional, construction practitioner, literature review, construction and demolition, sustainable construction, questionnaire, waste management, construction project |
| Subjects: | professional development, data analysis and analytics, data collection methods, infrastructure engineering, sustainable construction, production management, waste management, environmental impact |
| Topics: | Information Management, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here