Investigating the causes of delay and cost-overrun in construction industry

Year 2018, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 75 - 79, 15.08.2018

Alireza Rezaei , Saeed Jalal

Abstract

For a construction project to be successfully
completed, project objectives must be met within a specified time and budget.
‘Delay’ and ‘cost-overrun’ in the construction projects are two significant
defects, as they can negatively affect projects by disputes among stakeholders,
work quality and safety level in the project. Hence, it is crucial to have
further investigation on these especially in regions where less considered. To
overcome such problems and inconsistencies in the construction industry of
Northern Iraq, major factors and causes of delay and cost overrun were
investigated in a considerable number of construction companies in the region.
Sixty-one delay factors and forty-two cost overrun factors were considered in
the study. A questionnaire survey was administered, and a quantitative analysis
was conducted by SPSS. Major delay and cost overrun factors were determined and
the three major causes of delays were found as “security measures”, “high
number of sub-contracts by the same contractor”, and “poor labor productivity”.
Similarly, three major factors causing cost-overrun were “inadequate labor and
skill availability”, “inappropriate contractor policies”, and “domination of
construction industry by foreign firm and aids”. It was also found that the
majority of problems are raised by owners and contractors. An improvement
framework was finally proposed based on findings.

Keywords

Construction management, Cost-overrun factors, Delay factors

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