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Research Article Volume 9 Issue 2
Does contracting method matter? A comparative analysis of quality and performance outcomes in multi-prime vs single-prime urban roads infrastructure construction
Elijah Orango, Patrick Ajwang, Grace Musa
Received: May 25, 2025 | Published: September 9, 2025
Citation: Orango E, AjwangP, Musa G. Does contracting method matter? A comparative analysis of quality and performance outcomes in multi-prime vs singleprime urban roads infrastructure construction. Material Sci & Eng. 2025;9(2):63-71. DOI: 10.15406/mseij.2025.09.00255
Abstract
This study explored the difference in quality performance outcomes between Multi-Prime and Single Prime contracting methods and Multi prime contracting methods as they are used in roads infrastructure construction in Nairobi City County in Kenya. The study adopted cross-section study design in which primary quantitative data was collected from roads infrastructure construction professionals using semi-structured questionnaire. The study targeted a sample size of 385 rods construction professionals. Non-probability sampling methods (Purposive and snowball) were used to select and recruit the study participants. The Cronbach’s alpha for contract quality performance was 0.713, which indicated that the construct for measuring quality performance was reliable. With a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.615, overall contract performance demonstrated acceptable reliability. A statistically significant difference was observed in the quality of project output between Single Prime and Multi prime contracting methods (U = 495.0, z = -1.152, p = 0.002). The significantly higher mean rank for single-prime (38.91) compared to multi-prime (46.46) indicates that multi-prime contracting is associated with higher quality project outputs. The difference in overall contract performance between the two methods was not statistically significant (U = 701.500, z = -1.228, p = 0.019). Interestingly, despite the seemingly lower quality output, Multi prime contracting showed a slightly higher mean rank (45.87) compared to Single Prime (39.32) in overall performance. The result suggests that single prime contracting may actually be associated with, lower quality possibly due to the prime contractor’s markup on subcontractor work. This study concludes that multi-primes preforms better than singleprime contracting methods in term of cost and overall performance in large and complex road construction projects in Nairobi City County-Kenya.
Keywords: single prime contracting, multi prime contracting, quality performance
©2025 Orango, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.