Assessing the impact of risk factors in public projects: The case of roundabout traffic lights projects

Abstract

The aim of this “Master’s dissertation” is to assess the impact of risk factors in public projects; the case of roundabout traffic lights projects is taken as a vehicle in this study. A short reference to the definition of project, project types, as well as to the history of public projects in Cyprus and other countries. It is generally accepted that modern societies develop and operate under technological and scientific progress. At the same time, however, they are characterized by a multitude of technological and environmental disasters that have occurred, demonstrating the existence of a large scale of risks in technical projects and the need for their proper management. The development of the scientific field of Risk Management, was a key point in changing the perceptions that prevailed for years on Project Management and laid the foundations for the development of methods and technologies at all stages of the project life cycle. The difficulty of monitoring and evaluating the risks that threaten a technical project, requires the existence of a model that will include the relationships between the criteria and their effects on alternatives. According to what resulted by the questionnaires’’ analysis above, it should be said that the 30% of the participants said that when having a project about a roundabout traffic lights project, they take into account the circulation flow of the area in order to make the adequate planning, the 18% take into account the Necessities of pedestrians in that area, the 14% take into account Statistics about car crashes, the 12% the number of cars that will be using the roundabout on daily basis, the 10% take into account international standards and a 4% check new transportation studies in order to be informed about innovations. The rest 12% said that they take into account all of the above.

As a conclusion to the above, the risk, risk analysis, risk assessment and risk management are often used in both the business and public sectors. The risk definition associated with risk management includes the following: Risk is the probability of an event occurring that has a negative impact on the achievement of goals, at the individual or collective level" or "Risk is the positive and / or negative effect of uncertainty that affects the achievement of organizational goals.