Project proposal

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.............................................................................................................3

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................5

1. BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT.........................................................................................7

1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................7

1.2 Problem statement..................................................................................................................9

2. LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................12

2.1 General.................................................................................................................................12

2.2 Construction project planning..............................................................................................12

2.3 Project scheduling................................................................................................................13

Scheduling is the process of developing the work plan to a timeframe, set date-
wise in logical sequence. It is a timetable for action indicating the start and
completion of each activity........................................................................................................13

2.4 Definition of delay...............................................................................................................13

2.5 Classification of delays........................................................................................................13

2.5.1 Excusable delays...........................................................................................................14

2.5.2 Non-excusable of delays...............................................................................................14

2.5.4 Compensable or Non-compensable delays...................................................................15

2.6 Causes of delays...................................................................................................................16

2.7 Effects of delays...................................................................................................................17

3. METHODOLOGY AND SYSTEM ANALYSIS.....................................................................19

3.1 Research design...................................................................................................................19

3.2 Study area.............................................................................................................................19

3.3 Population and sample size..................................................................................................19

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3.4 Sampling Techniques...........................................................................................................20

3.5 Data collection.....................................................................................................................20

Table3.1 Likert scale for frequency of occurrence of related delay causes...........................22

Table 3.2 Likert scale for more influential effects of delay..................................................22

3.6 Data analysis........................................................................................................................22

CHAPTER FOUR..........................................................................................................................24

4 Research findings....................................................................................................................24

4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................24

4.1.1 Identified Factors that Cause Delays................................................................................24

Materials Related Factors..........................................................................................................24

Labour Related Factors..................................................................................................................24

Finance Related Factors.................................................................................................................24

Equipment Related Factors............................................................................................................25

Contractor Related Factors............................................................................................................25

Client Related Factors....................................................................................................................25

Consultant Related Factors............................................................................................................25

External Related Factors................................................................................................................25

4.1.2 Effects of Construction Delays.........................................................................................26

4.1.3 Minimizing Construction Delays..........................................................................................26

4.1.5 Data Presentation and Analysis............................................................................................28

Table 1: Questionnaire Distribution...............................................................................................28

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Project title: - Cause of Delay on Building

Projects in the Construction Industry of Ethiopia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Gage University

college to give us this significant chance to develop the proposal.

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My special thanks also go to my advisor Dr. Tarekege., Gage

University college for his unreserved constructive guidance
through proposal development.
At last but not least I want to thank all my families and friends
who are assisting me to develop this proposal

DECLARATION

I, the undersigned, declare that this thesis proposal entitled; “Cause

of Delay on Building Projects in the Construction Industry of Ethiopia”

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is my original work, and has been not presented by other person for an
award of degree in this or any other university, and all sources of
material used for this thesis proposal have to be duly acknowledged

Candidate:

Natnael Ashenafi
________________________ ------------------------
Signature Date

As masters Research advisor, I hereby certified that I have

read and evaluated this MSc Thesis proposal prepared under
my guidance by Natnael Ashenafi entitled Cause of Delay
on Building Projects in the Construction Industry of Ethiopia
Dr.Tarekege ____________________ -----------
Advisor Date Signature

ABSTRACT
The construction industry is one of the main sectors that provide important
ingredients for the development of an economy. Construction is a tool through
which a society achieves its goals of urban and rural development. However it is
becoming more complex because of the sophistication of the construction process
itself and the large number of parties involved in the construction process, i.e.,

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clients, contractors, consultants, users, designers, subcontractors, regulators, and

suppliers. This eventually leads to delay in the completion of the project.
Construction delay defined as “time over run either beyond completion date
specified in a contract or beyond the date that parties agree upon for delivery of a
project.” It is slipping over its planned schedule and is considered as common
problem in construction projects.
Delay in construction project completion is a global phenomenon that occurs in
the construction industry and considered as one of the most common problems
causing a multitude of negative effects on the project and its participating parties
especially where the government projects are concerned and in the construction
industry of Ethiopia is no exception. The objective of this study is to identify the
major causes of construction delays, their effects on the successful completion of
projects, and provide suggestions to minimize delays in the construction of
Building projects under in the internship site. This study uses a comprehensive
literature review to design and conduct a survey to investigate delay causes and
then filtered based on appropriateness to the Ethiopian Construction Industry as
well as the Building Projects at internship site. A general survey was distributed
through questionnaire to examine the most critical factors of delay and its relative
effect on the project with respect to time, cost and quality. Data was collected and
analyzed using the „Relative Importance Index (RII)‟ whereby the score with the
highest RII is one that mostly influences the delay.

CHAPTER ONE

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1. BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

1.1 Introduction
Modern construction projects are characterized by new standards, advanced
technologies, multiparty participation, and frequent owner-desired changes.
Coupled with this inherent uncertainties and complexities in the physical, financial,
and economic environment in which most projects are performed. Such conditions
have made completing projects on schedule and on budget a difficult task to
accomplish, often leading to claims on cost compensations and/or time extensions.
This eventually leads to delay in the completion of the project.
Delay is defined as the time over run either beyond completion date specified in a
contract or beyond the date that the parties agree upon for delivery of project.
Delay in construction project is considered one of the most common problems
causing a multitude negative effect on the project and its participating parties.
Therefore, it is essential to identify the actual causes of delay in order to minimize
and avoid the delays and their corresponding effects.
Delays in construction can cause a number of changes in a project such as late
completion, lost productivity, increased costs, and contracttermination. A delay in
an activity may not result in the same amount of project delay. A delay caused by a
party may or may not affect the project completion date and may or may not cause
damage to another party. A delay may occur concurrently with other delays and all
of them may impact the project completion date.
Delays caused by the client such as failure to allocate sufficient fund, slow decision
making coupled with delay caused by consultant such as late submission of
drawings and specifications, frequent change orders, and inadequate site
information generates claims from both the main contractors and subcontractors
which many times entail lengthy court proceedings with huge impacts. Delays

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caused by contractors generally attribute to poor managerial skills, lack of effective

planning and poor financial management has led to a contractor’s downfall.
The effect of delay may include time overrun, cost overrun, disputes, litigation and
total abandonment (Muraliand Yau, 2006). Some studies directly examine delays,
attempt to identify their causes and recommend ways to avoid them. Construction
projects delays have awakening effect on parties (owner, contractor, and
consultant) to contract in terms of a growth in adverbial relationships, distrust,
litigation, arbitration, cash-flow problems, and a general feeling of apprehension
towards each other (Assaf and Al-hejji, 2002).
This research project will examines causes and effects of delay in an
integrated manner and determines how critical delay causes are most
influential in project performance. This will provide owners,
Consultants and construction organizations involved in construction
projects with the foundation on which such strategies – on how to
avoid delays - can be developed in the future. This project will focuse
on, delay of construction projects, which were assessed for delay
causes and examines the corresponding effects identified and provide
recommendation based on the findings to improve project
performance within the site as well as the general public construction
projects.

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1.2 Problem statement

As I mentioned earlier in the challenge part of the research the construction site
was blackout so many times due to this there was delay of construction project and
it initiated me to know what its cause was and measurements to be taken to
overcome it and other construction projects in the country.
Delays in a construction project is counted as a common problem and became a
cause for projects completion with huge cost overrun (requiring higher budget than
estimated), extended completion time, inferior quality deliverables and contract
termination. In recent time it was an accepted phenomenon to have delays in
construction projects completion time. For the client, construction delay is a loss of
revenue, lack of productivity, dependency on existing facilities, etc. For the
contractor, construction delay is the higher costs, longer work duration, increased
labor cost, higher material and equipment costs etc.
Completion of construction projects on specified time or time agreed by the parties
indicates their efficiency. The delay in construction projects happen because of
various factors or causes. These causes lead to the delay in construction
completion, and this delay ultimately leads to negative effects on the construction
project.
In Ethiopian construction practice, it is very rare that construction projects are
completed on the time specified or agreed upon. There are many building
construction projects in our site, which suffered delay or in some cases suffered
suspension or abandonment.

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1.3 Objectives
1.3.1. General Objectives
• To assess the magnitude of building construction project delay and its
associated factors among construction projects

1.3.2. Specific Objectives

• To assess the magnitude of construction delay of
• To identify factors associated with construction projects delay
1.4. Scope of the study
This research will focus on the assessment of delay of construction
projects and associated. By using a combination of quantitative and
qualitative methods. It was conducted in two stages. The first stage
was conducted using a quantitative method through a questionnaire
survey in a bid to generate information from a large sample
population. The second stage of the study was conducted using the
qualitative method using semi-structured interviews. The reasons for
using the interview in addition to the questionnaire survey were: to
triangulate data obtained from the questionnaire survey; to enhance,
expand and create depth to the results of the questionnaire survey by
investigating and elaborating on some of the issues highlighted; and to
explore the experiences of the sample population in relation to the
topical issues revealed after analysis of the data obtained from the
questionnaire survey.

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1.5. Limitation of research

The study will be limited in some case, unexpected collaboration problems with
contractors.

1.6. Significant of the research

The significant of this study is to understand the delays and factors of building
social and economic. Affording to save overrun cost, saving time, easy to
accessibility on social life.

This research will be to provide how to minimize the delay of projects, overrun cost.
Generally, the result of this study will be provide to achieved the project by own budget
and time without overrun cost or additional time and cost.

1.7 Research Questions

While, this research will be mainly focused on responding to the following
questions:

 What is the magnitude of construction project delay in?

 What are the major causes of construction project delay?

 How much construction projects are affected by overrun cost from delay?

 What are the impacts of delayed projects?

 What measurements the have used to prevent delay?

 What are the most critical delay factors in construction?

 What are the causes of delay before starting the projects and
after starting?

CHAPTER TWO

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 General
Increasing uncertainties in technology, budget and construction processes make the
construction industry dynamic. Building projects are now much more complex and
difficult and hence the building project team faces unprecedented challenges. The
study on causes of construction delay and its effects on the project performance is a
means of understanding and thus improving the effectiveness of construction
projects.
The timely completion of a construction project is seen as a major criterion of
project success by clients (Bowen, Hall, Edwards, Pearl&Cattell, 2002).The in
ability of a project to be completed in accordance with the proposed time schedule
maybe as a result of delay. Stumpf (2000) viewed delays an incident at extends the
time required to perform the tasks under a contract. It usually shows up as
additional days of work or as a delayed start of an activity (Sweis, Hammad
&Shboul, 2008).

2.2 Construction project planning

Construction planning involves the choice of technology, the definition of work
tasks, the estimation of the required resources and durations for individual tasks,
and the identification of any inter-relationship among the different work tasks
(Chris 1998). Construction project planning is a method of determining “What” is
going to be done, “How” things are going to be done, “Who” will be doing
activities and “How Much” activities will cost. The objective of construction
planning is to identify discrete activities or tasks that can be planned, estimated,
scheduled, executed and controlled to ensure successful completion of construction

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projects. In addition, an effective planning must address the following questions

like what is to be done ,what are the activities ,how it is to be done, when it is to be
done, where it is to be done, what is needed to do it, who is to do it and how to
ensure that it is done(Chitkrara,2001).

2.3 Project scheduling

Scheduling is the process of developing the work plan to a timeframe, set
date-wise in logical sequence. It is a timetable for action indicating the start
and completion of each activity.

2.4 Definition of delay

Definitions of delays are stated by various scholars in different ways. Delays are
defined as events or occurrences that affect the time required to complete a
particular task. Assaf and AlHejji(2006) defined construction delay as the time
over run either beyond completion date specified in a contractor beyond the date
that parties agree upon for delivery of a project. K KChitkara, (2003) defined as it
is slipping over its planned schedule and is considered as common problem in
construction projects. Delay was also defined as an “act event which extends
required time to perform or complete works of the contract manifests itself as
additional days of work” by Zack (2003).

2.5 Classification of delays

The type of delay has an impact on critical activities which need a more detailed
analysis to determine whether additional time extension is warranted or not. Terry
Williams (2003) revealed that there are four basic ways to classify delays:
Excusable or non- excusable delay, Concurrent or non-concurrent delay, and
Compensable or non-compensable delay. The types of delays mentioned above
have internal or external sources on project process. Excusable delays can be

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further classified into excusable with compensation and excusable without

compensation. Internal causes of delay include causes that come from the owner,
designers, contractors, and consultants. External causes of delays are originated
from outside of construction projects such as utility companies, government,
subcontractors, suppliers, labor unions, nature, etc.

2.5.1 Excusable delays

An excusable delay is a delay that is due to an unforeseeable event beyond the
contractor’s or the subcontractor’s control. If the delay is considered compensable,
then the contractor is entitled to additional financial compensation as well as extra
project time. Molner(2007)the owner is responsible for both the time and cost
effect of the delay. Moreover, the author states that the contractor may claim the
owner interfered with the work, did not deliver owner-purchased equipment or
supplies on site as promised, or that the Owner’s actions or inactions caused other
delays. Under certain circumstances where non-compensated excusable delays
occur, the contractor receives extra time but not compensation money for the
additional completed work. Harry (1995) found that examples of excusable, non-
compensable delays include; unusually severe weather, fire, acts of God etc.
Therefore, it can be revealed that if such types of delays are encountered, the
contractor will not receive compensation for the cost of delay, but he will be
entitled for an additional time to complete the work.

2.5.2 Non-excusable of delays

Non-excusable delays are events that are within the contractor’s control or that are
foreseeable. Ahmed et al. (2005) indicated that these delays might be the results of
underestimates of productivity, inadequate scheduling or mismanagement,

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construction mistakes, equipment breakdowns, staffing problems, or bad luck.

Such delays are inherently the Contractor’s responsibility and no relief is allowed.
Some examples of non-excusable delays by (Al- Gahtani and Mohan 2007) include
faulty workmanship by the contractor or sub-contractors, untimely performance by
supplier, late performance of contractor and/or sub-contractors etc.

2.5.3 Concurrent delays

If only one factor is delaying construction, it is usually fairly easy to calculate both
the time and cost resulting from that single issue. A more complicated but also
more typical situation is one in which more than one factor delays the project at the
same time or in overlapping periods of time. These are called concurrent delays
(Alaghbari et al2007). Concurrent delays arise when one event causes a delay
simultaneously with another event. For example, if an owner denies access to a
project site for two weeks, and a severe storm prevents a contractor from working
on the project for one of two weeks as well, there will be a concurrent delay of one
week. The contractor will be able to recover for delay damages for one week, as a
severe storm is not a cause of delay that is compensable and would have prevented

the contractor from performing even if the owner did not deny access to the site.

2.5.4 Compensable or Non-compensable delays

A compensable delay is a delay where the contractor is entitled to a time extension
and to additional financial compensation. If the delay is compensable, then the
contractor is entitled not only to an extension of time but also to an adjustment for
any increase in costs caused by the delay (Al-Gahtani and Mohan, 2007). Relating

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back to the excusable and non-excusable delays, only excusable delays can be
compensable. Non-compensable delays mean that although an excusable delay
may have occurred, the contractor is not entitled to any added compensation
resulting from the excusable delay. Thus, the question of whether a delay is
compensable must be answered. Additionally, a non-excusable delay warrants
neither additional compensation money nor a time extension. Whether or not a
delay is compensable depends primarily on the terms of the contract. In most cases,
a contract specifically notes the kinds of delays that are non-compensable, for
which the contractor does not receive any additional money but may be allowed a
time extension.

2.6 Causes of delays

There are several factors that cause delay in construction. Delay may be caused by
clients, users, consultants, designers, owners, contractors and suppliers. In a study
of the significant factors that cause delay of construction projects (Alaghbari,
Kadir, Salim and Ernawati, 2007), classified the factors into four major groups,
these are contractor factor, consultant factor, client factors and external factors.
Financial problems, shortage of materials and poor site management practices were
considered the top most factors. Client related factors included delayed payments,
slow decision-making, frequent change orders, bid award for lowest price and
contract scope changes. The most important factors by consultant were provision
of incomplete design, poor supervision, slowness to give instructions and lack of
experience. External causes identified included shortage of materials availability,
poor site conditions and lack of equipment and tools in the market. In a related
study of the causes and effects of delay in Malaysia construction industry
Sambasivan& Soon (2007) found poor site management, inadequate experience‟

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and poor subcontractors among the major causes of time delays on construction
projects. Battaineh et al. (2002) studied causes of construction delay in Jordan.
Results of the survey indicated contractors and consultants agreed that owner
interference, inadequate contractor experience, financing and payments, labor
productivity, slow decision making, improper planning, and sub-contractors are
among the top ten significant factors. Ogunlana et al. (1996) studied the delays in
building project in Thailand, as an example of developing economies.
He concluded that the problems of the construction industry in developing
economies could be problems caused by incompetence of contractors, problems
caused by clients and consultants; and problems caused by incompetence of
contractors.

2.7 Effects of delays

The desire to finish a project on time, under the planned budget, and with the
highest quality is common goals for all contracting parties, including the owner,
contractor and consultant. Delay usually result in losses of one form or another for
everyone. Murali Sambasivam, et al (2007) studied the effects of construction
delays on project construction industry include time overrun, cost overrun, dispute,
litigation, arbitration and total abandonment. B.P.Sunjka, et al stated that poor
quality completed projects and bad public relations are also the effects caused due
to delay in construction projects in addition to the above effects .Koushkiand
Kartam (2004) concluded that time and cost overruns were the impact of the
material selection time, their availability in the local market and the presence of the
supervising engineer. Cost, time, and quality have proven their importance as the
primary success factors of project. According to Ahmed, et al delays on
construction project are a universal phenomenon. They are usually accompanied by

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cost overruns. Delay has a negative effect on clients, contractors, and consultants
in terms of growth in adversarial relationships, mistrust and cash-flow problems. A
project may be regarded as a successful endeavor until it satisfies the cost, time,
and quality limitations applied to it.
litigation, arbitration and total abandonment. B.P.Sunjka, et al stated that poor
quality completed projects and bad public relations are also the effects caused due
to delay in construction projects in addition to the above effects .Koushkiand
Kartam (2004) concluded that time and cost overruns were the impact of the
material selection time, their availability in the local market and the presence of the
supervising engineer. Cost, time, and quality have proven their importance as the
primary success factors of project. According to Ahmed, et al delays on
construction project are a universal phenomenon. They are usually accompanied
by cost overruns. Delay has a negative effect on clients, contractors, and
consultants in terms of growth in adversarial relationships, mistrust and cash-flow
problems. A project may be regarded as a successful endeavor until it satisfies the
cost, time, and quality limitations applied to it.

CHAPTER THREE

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3. METHODOLOGY AND SYSTEM

ANALYSIS
3.1 Research design
The methodology considered and adopted for this research work focus on literature review and,
structured questionnaire survey was designed and employed to assess the knowledge and practice
on the cause and effects of delays in the construction projects. It also uses both quantitative and
qualitative methods in the data collection process. The quantifiable responses analyzed through a
quantitative method as the name implies. The qualitative data gives more emphasis to the non-
quantifiable responses.
The project designed to get opinion from consultants and construction companies in regard to the
factor causing delays and effects of delays. The possible causes and effects of delays were
identified from the literature reviews. A total of 52 delay causing factors and six effects of
projects identified after thoroughly reviewing the literatures and questions designed according to
these factors to get the opinion from stake holders of the construction.

3.2 Study area

The study area of this research was Addis Ababa. It selected because of I was there to perform
my internship as an intern student and the project title indicates that the focus area was mainly
the project site but additionally to Ethiopia building construction industry.

3.3 Population and sample size

The population made of consultant and contractor with an experience in the
construction industry and currently involved in the construction of the project.
More over all respondents had high position; lengthy year of experience and
educational background attended higher level education implies the respondents
have enough knowledge of the construction industry with issues relating to causes
and effects of delay.

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A total of 12 questionnaires were sent to contractors and consultants in the

Ethiopian building construction industry. 8 responses were obtained, out of which
1 were rejected. This means an effective response rate of 66.7%. This was believed
to be acceptable for the research. The sample size consists of 7 respondents, which
include 5 contractors and 2 consultants.

3.4 Sampling Techniques

In this study, respondents will be selected based on their experience in building
construction, knowledge and involvement (contractors and consultants).

3.5 Data collection

The required data will collected by using a well prepared and pretested
questionnaire. A questionnaire was developed in order to assess the perceptions of
different parties involved in the construction process in Ethiopia‟s construction
sector, for the evaluation of frequency of occurrence and importance of the
identified causes. Data gathering from large sample size participants is time
consuming and require high budget. To overcome such challenges, I prefer to
collect the required information by using questionnaire. The questionnaire was
divided into two parts.
The first part comprised of questions regarding the most frequent and important
causes of construction delay were asked. The second part focused on the most
important and frequent effects of construction delay.
The questionnaire was designed to be a close ended questions including with few
comment spaces. These types of questions had a number of choices of possible
answers and the respondents selected whatever they feel was most appropriate.

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The reason for selecting a questionnaire method for my research is because it has a
merit of giving adequate time for informants to respond, not easily approached
respondents can be reached conveniently, large sample members can be addressed,
and economically cheap. Similarly, the closed ended questions were also selected
because they are easier to assess and answer considering how busy the respondents
were.
The primary data refers to the first-hand information gathered by the researcher.
The information was collecting in the survey by making use of questionnaires. The
questionnaires were hand delivered to respondents and collected same wise after
being filled.
The secondary data will be gathered through a literature review regarding delays
in construction project. Literature reviews carried out to enhance the understanding
of theory regarding the research problem.
The materials that will be used for literature reviews were includes articles,
magazines, and journals. The questions will be designed related to the research
objectives especially on the causes of construction delays.
The Survey will be designed based to use Likert Scale on the objective of the study
to find out the causes of delays in construction projects and effect of the delays on
overall project. The Survey will be framed in such a way that the personal view of
different people involved in different projects is collected and analyzed. The
questionnaire will be based on Likert Scale of five ordinal measures from one (1)
to five (5) according to level contributing. According to John F. (2001), Likert
Scale is easier to use for respondent to express their level of opinion. For the
frequency of cause‟s occurrence, each scale represents the rating as shown in Table
1 and Table 2 shows the rating for the most influential effects of delay.

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Table3.1 Likert scale for frequency of occurrence of related delay causes

Category Never Rarely Sometimes Often Greatly often
Rating 1 2 3 4 5

Table 3.2 Likert scale for more influential effects of delay

Category Strongly disagree Disagree Slightly disagree Agree Strongly agree
Rating 1 2 3 4 5

3.6 Data analysis

The data analysis will be determined to establish the relative importance of various
factors that contribute to causes and effects of construction delays. Analysis of data
consists of calculating the Relative Importance Index (RII) and Ranking of factors
in each category based on the Relative Importance Index (RII).
RII = 1 n1+2n2+3n3+4n4+5n5.........
A*N
Where,
RII = Relative Importance Index, n1, n2, n3, n4, n5 =
Number of respondents answer each factor 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
= weight given for each factor (ranging from 1 to 5),
A = highest weight (i.e. 5 in our case), N = total
number of respondents.
The importance indices will be calculated for all delay causes and the delay causes
will be ranked accordingly. In order to identify how project delay can be mitigated,

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it is important to identify the responsible party. Therefore, the responsibility of the

delay causes will be illustrated in the factor or category column.

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CHAPTER FOUR
4 Research findings
4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 Identified Factors that Cause Delays
A project may be delayed for a large number of reasons (factors). The following factors were
identified to have influence on construction project delays through books, conference
proceedings, the internet, site visits, contractors, clients, consultants and journals.
Materials Related Factors
• Shortage of materials
• Poor quality of materials
• Poor procurement of materials
• Unreliable suppliers
• Late delivery of materials
• Escalation of material prices
• Importation of materials
Labour Related Factors
• Slow mobilization of labour
• Shortage of skilled labour
• Labour productivity
• Labour supply
• Absenteeism
• Strike
• Low motivation and morale
Finance Related Factors
• Inadequate fund allocation
• High interest rate
• Contractor’s financial difficulties
• Client’s financial difficulties
• Unreasonable constraints of client
• Delay payments to suppliers/subcontractors
• Interim payment difficulties

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Equipment Related Factors

• Insufficient number of equipment
• Frequent equipment breakdown
• Shortage of equipment parts
• Improper equipment
• Slow mobilization of equipment
• Equipment allocation problem
• Inadequate modern equipment
Contractor Related Factors
• Inadequate contractor experience
• Inappropriate construction methods
• Inaccurate time estimate
• Inaccurate cost estimate
• Poor site management and supervision
• Improper project planning and scheduling
• Incompetent project team
• Unreliable subcontractor
• Obsolete technology
Client Related Factors
• Slow decision making by client
• Lack of experience of client in construction
• Change orders
• Client interference
• Lack of capable representative
• Lack of communication and coordination
• Improper project feasibility study
Consultant Related Factors
• Inadequate consultant experience
• Poor design and delays in design
• Inadequate project management assistance
• Slow response and poor inspection
• Incomplete drawings/detailed design
• Inaccurate site investigation
External Related Factors
• Unforeseen ground condition
• Unexpected geological condition
• Inflation/prices fluctuation
• Slow site clearance

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• Problem with neighbor’s

• Weather conditions
• Conflict, war and public enemy.

4.1.2 Effects of Construction Delays

Delays can give rise to disruption of work and loss of productivity, late completion of project,
increased time related costs and third party claims and abandonment or termination of contract.
Aibinu and Jagboro (2002) studied the effects of construction delays on project delivery in
Nigerian construction industry. The six effects identified were: time-overrun, cost-overrun,
dispute, arbitration, total abandonment and litigation.

4.1.3 Minimizing Construction Delays

The success of construction projects is very important for all project participants as well as the
community and the nation to sustain national development. However, several factors affect
whether or not a project is completed successfully.
Many researchers conducted studies, recommended and identified the methods of minimizing
delays in construction projects. Nguyen, et al (2004) studied the project success factors in large
construction projects in Vietnam. The following factors were identified as methods of
minimizing construction project delays:
^ Competent project manager
^ Multidisciplinary/competent project team
^ Availability of resources
^ Commitment to projects
^ Frequent progress meeting
^ Accurate initial cost estimates
^ Accurate initial time estimates
^ Awarding bids to the right/experienced consultants and contractors
^ Community involvement
^ Systematic control mechanism
^ Comprehensive contract documentation
^ Effective strategic planning

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^ Clear information and communication channels

^ Use of up-to-date technology
^ Absence of bureaucracy

Aibinu and Jagboro (2002) identified two methods to minimize or if possible eliminate time
overrun: acceleration of site activities and contingency allowance.
Based on several studies of project success factors and minimizing delays in construction
projects, a total of thirty five methods have been identified in order to minimize construction
project delays:
• Competent project manager
• Ensure adequate and available sources of finance
• Multidisciplinary/competent project team
• Availability of resources
• Commitment to project
• Adopting a new approach to contract award procedure by giving less weight to prices and
more weight to the capabilities and past performance of contractors.
• Adopting new approaches to contracting such as Design-Build and Construction
Management (CM) type of contract.
• Complete and accurate project feasibility study and site investigation.
• Acceleration of site clearance
• Comprehensive contract documentation
• Frequent progress meeting
• Project management assistance
• Up-to-date technology utilization
• Use of experience subcontractors and suppliers
• Complete and proper design at the right time
• Competent personnel of consultant/designer
• Competent and capable client’s representative
• Site management and supervision
• Use of proper and modern construction equipment
• Proper project planning and scheduling
• Accurate initial cost estimates
• Use of appropriate construction methods
• Community involvement
• Proper emphasis on past experience
• Frequent coordination between the parties involved
• Absence of bureaucracy
• Clear information and communication channels
• Accurate initial time estimates
• Proper material procurement

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• Developing human resources in the construction industry through proper training

• Allocation of sufficient time and money at the design phase
• Awarding bids to the right/experienced consultants and contractors
• Perform a pre-construction planning of project tasks and resources needed • Systematic
control mechanism
• Effective strategic planning.
4.1.5 Data Presentation and Analysis
• The data collected from the questionnaire survey were presented in tables, and
statistically analyzed using percentages, relative importance index (1) and spearman’s
rank correlation coefficient.

Table 1: Questionnaire Distribution

Description Number Distributed Number Correctly Percentage

Filled and Returned Returned (%)
Contractors 50 45 45
Consultants 50 46 46
Total 100 91 91

From table 1 above a total 91 questionnaires were correctly filled and returned out of 100
questionnaires distributed to both contractors and consultants representing 91%.

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