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

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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