research proposal on managing delays in construction projects

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Managing Delays in Construction Projects Aiming at Cost Overrun Minimization

Hubert Anysz 1

Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering , Volume 603 , Issue 3 Citation Hubert Anysz 2019 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 603 032004 DOI 10.1088/1757-899X/603/3/032004

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1 Warsaw University of Technology, Civil Engineering Department, Al. Armii Ludowej 16, 00-637 Warsaw, Poland

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The effects of the delay in construction contract execution are always negative for every party being involved. Cancelling the delays of the time schedule means the use of more production means that it was planned. It creates an additional cost. If the delays of the schedule are not cancelled, the contractor suffers from the cost increase. The penalties arisen from not keeping the milestones or the completion date are expected too. There is a trade-off: cancelling delays spending additional money now (during the contract execution) or executing a delayed contract till its end awaiting for its final settlement (showing the cost increase) and possible penalties. There is no one, correct answer how to manage a delayed construction project. There is a natural unwillingness to spend money over the budget. Nevertheless, the delayed completion date can cause much higher contractor's expenses, than cancelling delays during the contract execution. The decisions made by the project manager depend on various factors discussed in the paper. A delay concerning the single task increases the cost of its execution at a different level. The same, the level of influence of delaying a single task, influences the completion date with varied strength. These influences depend on the location of the task in a net model – the base of a schedule. The tasks located on the critical path – defined in the Critical Path Method – should be of the special care. However, delays on not critical tasks can also break the budget and the planned completion date. The nature of delay is important as well. Lowered productivity of a workers' brigade can make the execution of the task longer, the same as forced breaks in their efficient work. The reaction of a site manager to such causes of delay should be different, as the origin of the delays is different. The impact of the delay noticed on the single task is discussed in the paper and possible reaction (varied on the type of a delay and a task location too) are proposed. The proposed solutions aim at cost minimizing considering the total expenses spent by a contractor and possible penalties in case of the delayed completion date of a construction contract.

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Factors Affecting Delays in Infrastructure Construction Projects

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• First Online: 15 December 2021
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• Arun Kumar Ahuja 10 &
• Awanish Gaurav 10  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering ((LNCE,volume 172))

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• International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering

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Construction delays have always been a major cause of concern for construction industry and attained focus from many researchers. Projects having long life cycle, particularly infrastructure projects, are highly uncertain in delivering projects within contractual time frame. Infrastructure projects in developing nation have seen various factors impacting the project delivery which in turn measured as overall time, cost and quality of projects. An attempt is made in this paper to understand and to identify various factors contributing to delays based on claim settlement and to see the pattern followed by these factors. In this study secondary data have been collected from reliable sources which translate verdicts of arbitration cases arise in construction industry. The collected data have been analyzed to identify the factors affecting construction project delays and reflecting in decisions of verdict. The study reveals that the factor “delay in taking approval and availing permits to the contractor from statutory authorities and handover” plays predominant role and generally resulted in monetary compensation and time extension, factor titled “delay due to change orders/change in scope of work and work stoppage” generally resulted in time extension and “delay due to late handing over of site and late delivery drawings and documents” has resulted in monetary compensation. Findings of this study enable us to exercise suitable strategy during project execution as a part of decision making.

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Arun Kumar Ahuja & Awanish Gaurav

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Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India

Boeing Laishram

Department of Civil Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

Abhay Tawalare

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Ahuja, A.K., Gaurav, A. (2022). Factors Affecting Delays in Infrastructure Construction Projects. In: Laishram, B., Tawalare, A. (eds) Recent Advancements in Civil Engineering. ACE 2020. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 172. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4396-5_10

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4396-5_10

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EXAMINING THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF CONSTRUCTION PROJECT DELAYS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY BASED ON EXPERIENCES BY SPVET PROJECT IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS IN MALAWI

2021, UNIVERSITY OF BOLTON

Most of the construction projects commence or are completed after extensions on initial timelines. This study examined the causes and effects of delays in completion of construction projects in Malawi, based on experiences by individuals and institutions who were part of the implementers of the SPVET project implemented in Malawi. To achieve the objective above, the study employed a mixed methods design where both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to capture and analyse data on respondent perspectives about the causes and effects of delays to start or finish construction. Both structured and open-ended questions were included in the interview questionnaire and responses to structured questions sought to objectively triangulate those to open-ended questions. Data from the research study was analysed using qualitative and quantitative techniques, with the quantitative techniques validating the qualitative data.The study found out that most of the causes of delays to finish construction projects are human in nature and includes unresponsive funding disbursement practices, lack of urgency in decision-making, communication challenges, and poor project management practices. With regard to the effects of the delays, the study found out that most of the recognized effects include deferred enjoyment or provision of services, cost overruns, staff turnover, resultant constraints on infrastructure improvement efforts, changes on the commitments of funders,distortions on schedules and income flows, and reputational damage. Based on the findings, the study recommends that project implementers and funders needed to ensure more stable funding, thoroughness and realism in planning and budgeting, implementation capacity and monitoring, synergy during implementation capacity and monitoring, adherence to terms and conditions, and participatory design phase

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, underlying causes and mitigation measures of delays in construction projects: an empirical study.

Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction

ISSN : 1366-4387

Article publication date: 25 February 2020

Issue publication date: 16 July 2020

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the theory and practice of project management in the construction industry by identifying the primary causes and extracting the underlying causes of construction delays and providing recommendations on delay mitigation measures.

Design/methodology/approach

AA survey was used to identify the importance of 47 causes of delays. The relative importance index was used to rank them, factor analysis was applied to extract the underlying causes and focus group interviews were used for discussion and development of mitigation measures.

Six of the ten most important causes are in the top ten universal delays in construction projects. Factor analysis revealed six underlying causes: improper planning, poor consultant performance, inefficient site management, owner influence, bureaucracy and sub-standard contracts.

Practical implications

The owner/sponsor/client must have adequate engineering and project management skills to be able to evaluate proposals and contractors more accurately, economically and technically. The bidding and contract award process should focus on the most economically advantageous proposal and contracts should provide for mechanisms for managing risks while executing projects. Contractors should select reliable, high-quality subcontractors and suppliers and should have competent site managers.

Originality/value

This work expands and improves the understanding of the causes of delays in construction projects by providing an empirical study of the causes of delays and respective mitigation measures in Portugal.

• Project management
• Construction/project management
• Delays in project delivery
• Factor analysis
• Delay causes
• Construction industry

Arantes, A. and Ferreira, L.M.D.F. (2020), "Underlying causes and mitigation measures of delays in construction projects: An empirical study", Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction , Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 165-181. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMPC-03-2019-0029

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