Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 7(4): 14-23, 2013

ISSN 1991-8178

Important Causes of Delay in Construction Projects in Baghdad City

Qais Kadhim Jahanger

Environmental Engineering Department/ College of engineering /AL- Mustansiriyah University/

Baghdad-Iraq

Abstract: This study aimed to identify causes of delay in construction projects in Baghdad city, and
specify the most important causes of delay in the construction project through a field survey of a
questionnaire contained 58 causes of delay identified for this research, categorized in 10 groups of
delay causes. The Field survey conducted included 78 engineers represent the project three participants
(owner, contractor and consultant). The results show that 60 engineers responded, agree together that
the most important cause of delay is (Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents) by relative
importance index (RII) of 83.05%, followed by (Ineffective planning and scheduling of project by
contractor). While design group of delay causes was ranked the highest instead of environmental group
that was ranked the lowest group of delay causes.

Key words: Causes of delay, Construction projects, Baghdad city

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, Iraqi economy has improved largely, following the growth of oil sector, infrastructure
development and the urbanization are booming. And complying with them, the weight (importance) of the
construction industry in the national economy has been increasing. However, many problems have arising
during the construction project implementation, delay is one of them.
Delay could be defined as the time over-run either beyond completion date specified in a contract, or
beyond the date that the parties agreed up on for delivery of project.
A major criticism facing the Iraqi construction industry is the growing rate of delays in project delivery.
Completing projects on time is an indicator of efficiency, but the construction process is subject to many
variables and unpredictable factors, which result from many sources. These sources include the performance of
parties, resources available, environmental conditions, involvement of the parties and contractual relations.
However, it is rarely happen that a project is completed within the specified time.
For the owner, construction delay refers to the loss of revenue, lack of productivity, dependency on existing
facilities, lack of rentable facilities etc. For the contractor, construction delay refers to 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 within parties indicates the work and construction efficiency.

Objectives of the study:

The main objectives of this study include the following:
• Identifying the causes of delay in construction projects in Baghdad city in Iraq
• Test the importance of the causes of delay for each group of parties and from the all together.
• Studying the differences in perceptions of the three major parties in any constructions, namely,
owners, contractors and consultants

Literature Review:
Fugar and Agyakwah-Baah (2010) investigates the causes of delay of building construction projects in
Ghana to determine the most important according to the key project participants; clients, consultants, and
contractors. Thirty-two possible causes of delay were identified. These delay factors were further categorized
into nine major groups. The list of delay causes was subjected to a questionnaire survey for the identification of
the most important causes of delay. The respondents generally agree that financial group factors ranked highest
among the major factors causing delay in construction projects in Ghana.(4)
Assaf and AlHejji (2006) conducted a time performance survey of different types of construction projects in
Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia to determine the causes of delay and their importance according to each
project participant (owner, consultant, and contractor). They identified seventy three (73) causes of delay during
the research. The most common cause of delay identified by all three parties was “change order.(3)
Pourrostam and Ismail (2011) they aim in this paper to identify the main causes and consequences of delay
in Iranian construction projects. A questionnaire survey was conducted to solicit the causes and consequences of
delay from consultants and contractors’ viewpoint. This study identified 10 most important causes of delay from

Corresponding Author: Qais Kadhim Jahanger, Environmental Engineering Department/ College of engineering /AL-
Mustansiriyah University/ Baghdad-Iraq
E-mail: [email protected]
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a list of 27 different causes of delay and 6 different effects of delay. The results showed delay can lead to many
negative effects such as time and cost overrun, disputes, arbitration, total abandonment and litigation.(7)
Tumi et al (2009) aimed to identify the cause of delay in Libyan city of Zantan, where they classified the
causes of delay in two categories of delays used in determining delay damages: 1-Inexcusable delays (Non-
Excusable delay) and Excusable delays of both (Non-compensable delays and Compensable delays) also
mentioned 43 factors cause delays distributed in to six board categories used in questionnaire survey targeted at
some contractors, clients and consultants in some projects in Libya. To reach the important delay causes.(8)
Hoai et al (2008) studied delays and cost overruns that have been met in construction projects in Vietnam;
this research has employed a questionnaire survey to elicit the causes of this situation by interviewing 87
Vietnamese construction experts. Twenty one causes of delay and cost overruns appropriate with building and
industrial construction project were inferred and ranked with respect to frequency, severity and importance
indices. Factor analysis technique was applied to categorize the causes, which yielded 7 factors: Slowness and
Lack of constraint; Incompetence; Design; Market and Estimate; Financial capability; Government; and
Worker.(5)
Aibinu and Jagboro (2002) identified by questionnaire evaluates and through empirical method assesses the
effects of construction delays. The findings showed that time and cost overruns were frequent effects of delay.
Delay had significant effect on completion cost and time of 61 building projects studied. Client-related delay is
significant in Nigeria.(2)
Abdullah et al (2010) in this paper presents a survey study on significant causes of delay in MARA
management procurement construction projects in Malaysia. The results analysis revealed that the significant
delay causes were cash flow and financial difficulties faced by contractors, contractors’ poor site management
and ineffective planning and scheduling by contractors.(1)

Research Methodology:
From existing literatures on the construction projects delay causes in different countries, it have been
reviewed and from simple experience in projects and based on the preliminary investigation conducted to
previous projects at the outset of this study, it was possible to identify certain factors effect of delay on project
delivery. The fifty eight causes of delay were identified, categorized to ten major groups (sources).
A questionnaire was organized in the form of an importance scale. Respondents were asked to indicate by
ticking a column the relative importance of each of the causes of construction delay.
Field survey has been adopted to collect data; stratified sample technique was used to distribute the
designed questionnaire to the three principal construction parties (owner, consultant and contractor) where these
three parties represented completely by their engineers in this research.
Also agreement on the ranking of the importance of the causes of delay between each two groups of parties
was tested.

Questionnaire Design:
Data were gathered through a questionnaire. The questionnaire is divided into two main parts. Part one is
related to personal information for respondents like (name, specialist, experience years,…..) and the part two
contain the list of 58 identified causes of delay in construction project, these causes are categorized in ten groups
according to source of delay, classified groups are project, design, owner, contractor, consultant, workforce,
equipment, materials, environment and external, where table (1) explains the 58 causes as listed in the
questionnaire.
For each cause/group the participant was asked the importance degree in causing delay in the project
duration according to five scale importance index (5 to 1 point scale: Extremely=5, Great=4, Medium=3,
Little=2, Very little=1)

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Table 1: Delay causes as listed in the questionnaire

Group Seq. Cause of Delay Importance index in causing delay
Very Little Medium Great Extremely
Little
1 Original contract duration is too short
2 Inadequate definition of substantial completion
3 Ineffective delay penalties
4 Type of construction contract (Turnkey, Construction
only,….)
project

5 Type of project bidding and award (Negotiation,

Lowest bidder,….)
6 Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents
7 Delays in producing design documents
8 Unclear and inadequate details in drawings
9 Insufficient data collection and survey before design
Design

10 Inadequate design-team experience

11 Complexity of project design
12 Delay in progress Payments by owner
13 Delay to deliver the site to contractor
14 Change orders by owner during construction
15 Delay in approving shop drawings and sample
materials
16 Poor communication and coordination by owner and
other parties
Owner

17 Low speed of decision making

18 Suspension of work by owner
19 Difficulties in financing project by contractor
20 Rework due to errors during construction
21 Poor site management and supervision by contractor
22 Poor communication and coordination by contractor
and other parties
23 Ineffective planning and scheduling of project by
contractor
24 Obsolete or unsuitable construction methods
Contractor

25 Frequent change of sub-contractors because of their

inefficient work
26 Poor qualification of the contractor's technical staff
27 Delay in performing inspection and testing by
consultant
28 Delay in approving major changes in the scope of
work by consultant
29 Inflexibility (rigidity) of consultant
30 Late in reviewing and approving design documents by
consultant
Consultant

31 Poor communication/ coordination between

consultant and other parties
32 Inadequate experience of consultant
33 Shortage of materials on site or market
34 Late delivery of materials
35 Changes in material types and specifications during
construction
36 Damage of sorted materials while they are needed
Material

urgently
37 Late in selection of finishing materials due to
availability of many types in market
38 Shortage of labors
39 Unqualified workforce
40 Low productivity of labors
Work force

41 Personal conflicts among labors

42 Difficulties of skilled workforce to work in different
sites because of security conditions
43 Equipment failure or breakdown
Equipm-

44 Low level of equipment-operator's skill

45 Low productivity and efficiency of equipment
ent

46 Shortage of equipment
47 Effects of subsurface conditions (e.g. soil, high water
table, etc. )
Environm-

48 Hot weather effect on construction activities

49 Rain effect on construction activities
ental

50 Effect of dust storms that fall out repeatedly in

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Baghdad recently
51 Delay in obtaining permits from municipality
52 Unavailability of utilities in site (such as water,
electricity, telephone, etc.)
53 Effect of social and cultural factors
54 Traffic control and restriction at job site
55 Accident during construction
56 Changes in government regulations and lows
External

57 Effects of roads and streets closing due to security

conditions
58 Public holidays

Data Analysis:
The collected data through the questionnaire survey of the 58 causes of delay were analyzed using relative
importance index (RII) technique from (Lim and Alum)(6), the aim of the analysis was to establish the relative
importance of the various causes identified as responsible for construction delay, The score for each cause is
calculated by summing up the scores given to it by the respondents. The relative importance index (RII) was
calculated using the following formula (Lim and Alum)(6)

(1)

Where:
N1= No. of Respondents answered (very little)
N2= No. of Respondents answered (little)
N3= No. of Respondents answered (medium)
N4= No. of Respondents answered (great)
N5= No. of Respondents answered (extremely)

Characteristics Of Respondents:
Face-to-face is preferred to distribute the questionnaire also official post and E-mail used; respondents are
promoted to raise the response rate. A total of 78 questionnaires are delivered to construction professional
engineers involved in large and medium projects located in Baghdad city.
The response rate from the (Owner, Contractor and consultants) are 74.193%, 78.571% and 78.947%
respectively as illustrated in table (2) below:

Table 2: Percentage of questionnaire distributed and responses received

Respondents Questionnaires distributed Responses returned Percentage of
responses (%)
Owner 28 22 78.571
Contractor 31 23 74.193
Consultant 19 15 78.947
Total 78 60 76.92

Regarding number of years experience involved in construction, 6.67% of respondents have less than 5
years, 16.67% of those have between 5 to 10 years,38.333 from respondents have experience between 11 to 20
years, and 38.33% remained of those have more than 20 years experience.
Regarding on graduation degree of highest education, 15% of respondents have Ph.D in engineering, 15%
also of those have M.Sc Degree in engineering and the remained have B.Sc in engineering, where these
respondents involved in building, sewage networks and lines, water networks and bridge and tunnel and road
projects in Baghdad city.

Research Findings And Results:

The perspective of (owner, contractor and consultant) of the 58 delay causes analyzed based on the relative
importance index. The results are shown in table (3) and (4) below. The relative importance index and ranks of
delay causes by all the respondents are presented in table (3). Table (4) explains the relative importance index
and ranks of groups of delay causes by all respondents.

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Table 3: Relative importance index and rank of delay causes according to (Owner, Contractor and Consultant)
Delay Causes Overall Owner Contractor Consultant Group
RII % Rank RII % Rank RII % Rank RII % Rank
Mistakes and discrepancies in design 83.05 1 84.54 4 80.9 1 84 2 Design
documents
Ineffective planning and scheduling of 80.33 2 80.9 9 76.52 10 85.33 1 Contractor
project by contractor
Poor site management and supervision 80 3 80.9 9 78.26 5 81.42 3 Contractor
by contractor
Poor qualification of the contractor's 79.64 4 88 1 79.13 4 68.57 17 Contractor
technical staff
Unclear and inadequate details in 78.96 5 80.95 8 80.9 1 73.33 9 Design
drawings
Inadequate design-team experience 78.94 6 82.85 5 80.9 1 70 14 Design
Insufficient data collection and survey 78.27 7 85.71 3 72.27 19 76 6 Design
before design
Difficulties in financing project by 77.58 8 80 11 77.27 7 74.66 8 Contractor
contractor
Obsolete or unsuitable construction 76.55 9 87.27 2 69.52 30 70.66 13 Contractor
methods
Unqualified workforce 75.66 10 76.36 16 73.91 16 77.33 5 Work
Force
Low speed of decision making 75.25 11 77.14 15 75.65 13 72 11 Owner
Delay in progress Payments by owner 74.91 12 76.19 18 75.65 13 72 11 Owner
Delays in producing design documents 74.73 13 79.04 13 77.27 7 64.28 24 Design
Delay in approving major changes in the 74.57 14 80 11 77.39 6 62.66 27 Consultant
scope of work by consultant
Frequent change of sub-contractors 73.79 15 81.81 6 71.42 21 65.33 23 Contractor
because of their inefficient work
Low productivity of labors 73.66 16 71.81 27 73.91 16 76 6 Work
Force
Inadequate experience of consultant 73.55 17 78.09 14 75.65 13 60 32 Consultant
Delay in approving shop drawings and 73.44 18 76 20 73.91 16 69.33 16 Owner
sample materials
Poor communication and coordination 72.41 19 74.28 23 70 27 73.33 9 Contractor
by contractor and other parties
Ineffective delay penalties 71.03 20 70.9 30 65.45 42 80 4 Project
Changes in material types and 71.03 20 71.81 27 70.9 23 70 14 Material
specifications during construction
Delay to deliver the site to contractor 70.33 22 81.81 6 66.08 40 60 32 Owner
Change orders by owner during 70.16 23 75.45 21 67.27 38 66.66 19 Owner
construction
Rework due to errors during 69.83 24 73.33 24 70.43 25 64 25 Contractor
construction
Late in reviewing and approving design 69.83 24 70 33 76.36 11 60 32 Consultant
documents by consultant
Effects of subsurface conditions (e.g. 69.33 26 76.36 16 69.56 28 58.66 37 Environ-
soil, high water table, etc. ) ment
Effects of roads and streets closing due 69.33 26 76.36 16 64.34 44 66.66 19 External
to security conditions
Suspension of work by owner 69.15 28 72.38 26 72.17 20 60 32 Owner
Original contract duration is too short 68.96 29 67.61 39 77.27 7 58.66 37 Project
Low productivity and efficiency of 68.81 30 72.72 25 70.43 25 60 32 Equipment
equipment
Inadequate definition of substantial 68.36 31 63 45 76 12 64 25 Project
completion
Equipment failure or breakdown 68.33 32 68.18 37 69.56 28 66.66 19 Equipment
Unavailability of utilities in site (such as 67.66 33 70.9 30 68.69 32 48 53 External
water, electricity, telephone, etc.)
Shortage of equipment 66.44 34 68.18 37 67.82 36 61.42 29 Equipm-
ent
Complexity of project design 66.42 35 67.6 41 68.57 34 61.42 29 Design
Delay in performing inspection and 66.33 36 70 33 68.69 32 57.33 42 Consultant
testing by consultant
Difficulties of skilled workforce to work 66.33 36 60.9 49 71.3 22 66.66 19 Work
in different sites because of security force
conditions
Poor communication/ coordination 66.1 38 69.09 36 69.09 31 54.66 46 Consultant
between consultant and other parties
Shortage of materials on site or market 65.76 39 70.9 30 70.9 23 50.66 50 Material
Traffic control and restriction at job site 65.33 40 74.54 22 58.26 52 52 48 External
Late delivery of materials 64.82 41 67.61 39 68.18 35 56 44 Material
Inflexibility (rigidity) of consultant 63.38 42 63.8 44 66.08 40 58.66 37 Consultant

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Type of project bidding and award 63.1 43 71.42 29 51.81 57 68 18 Project

(Negotiation, Lowest bidder,….)
Low level of equipment-operator's skill 63 44 66.36 43 63.63 46 61.33 31 Equipm-
ent
Poor communication and coordination 62.71 45 69.52 35 61.73 47 54.66 46 Owner
by owner and other parties
Damage of sorted materials while they 62.06 46 60 52 63.8 45 62.66 27 Material
are needed urgently
Type of construction contract (Turnkey, 61.4 47 57.14 53 67.61 37 58.66 37 Project
Construction only,….)
Late in selection of finishing materials 61.35 48 60.9 49 65.45 42 56 44 Material
due to availability of many types in
market
Hot weather effect on construction 61.33 49 67.27 42 57.39 55 58.66 37 Environ-
activities ment
Shortage of labors 59.66 50 62.72 48 61.73 47 52 48 Work
force
Public holidays 59 51 60.9 49 58.26 52 57.33 42 External
Delay in obtaining permits from 58.27 52 62.85 46 59.09 51 50.66 50 External
municipality
Changes in government regulations and 56.27 53 62.85 46 60 50 41.33 55 External
lows
Rain effect on construction activities 56 54 55.45 55 66.95 39 40 57 Environ-
ment
Effect of social and cultural factors 53.44 55 55.23 56 60.9 49 40 57 External
Effect of dust storms that fall out 52.66 56 56.36 54 56.52 56 41.33 55 Environ-
repeatedly in Baghdad recently ment
Accident during construction 52.54 57 49.52 58 58.26 52 48 53 External
Personal conflicts among labors 51.18 58 52.38 57 50.43 58 50.66 50 Work
force

Table 4: Relative importance index and rank of groups (sources) of delay causes
group Overall Owner Contractor Consultant
RII % Rank RII % Rank RII % Rank RII % Rank
Design 76.521 1 80.157 2 76.946 1 70.574 2
Contractor 76.274 2 80.818 1 74.157 2 72.881 1
Owner 70.847 3 75.540 3 70.375 4 64.952 4
Consultant 68.676 4 71.782 4 72.205 3 58.888 8
Equipment 66.638 5 68.863 5 67.173 7 62.413 6
Project 66.573 6 66.095 7 67.663 5 65.675 3
Workforce 65.351 7 64.954 8 66.260 8 64.533 5
Material 64.778 8 66.238 6 67.272 6 58.918 7
External 59.873 9 64.302 9 61.868 10 50.500 9
Environmental 59.750 10 63.863 10 62.391 9 49.666 10

I. spearman’s rank correlation:

Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient ( ) is used to demonstrate whether there is the agreement or
disagreement of ranking between any two parties. The spearman’s rank correlation is a non-parametric test.
Non-parametric tests are also referred to as distribution-free test. These tests do not require the assumption of
normality or the assumption of homogeneity of variance. They compare the medians rather than means and, as a
result, if the data have one or two outliers, their influence is excluded. The correlation coefficient varies between
+1 and –1, where +1 implies a perfect positive relationship (agreement), while –1 results from a perfect negative
relationship (disagreement). And it is calculated by the following formula:

(2)

Where:
d = the difference between the ranks given by any two respondents for an individual cause
n = the number of causes or groups, which in this case is 58 causes or 10 groups.
The rank correlation coefficients for the delay causes are 0.69, 0.72 and 0.66 for owner and contractor,
owner and consultant, and contractor and consultant respectively. This shows high agreement between rankings.

II. Discussion of results:

From table (3) above Overall respondents agreed that the top ten most important causes resulting delay in
the construction projects in Baghdad city are:
1. Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents
2. Ineffective planning and scheduling of project by contractor

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3. Poor site management and supervision by contractor

4. Poor qualification of the contractor's technical staff
5. Unclear and inadequate details in drawings
6. Inadequate design-team experience
7. Insufficient data collection and survey before design
8. Difficulties in financing project by contractor
9. Obsolete or unsuitable construction methods
10. Unqualified workforce
Also from table (4) above, based on different groups (sources) of delay causes, the respondents generally
agreed that the top three groups are:
1. Design
2. Contractor
3. Owner
The following brief discussion for 58 causes of delay explained with their groups, illustrated in the
descending order of the groups ranking:

1st – Design:
This group of delay causes was ranked highest from all the respondents put together, where its RII is
(76.521%), that means it represent the main group causes that cause delay for construction projects in Baghdad
city, which the cause (Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents) in that group was ranked at the first
cause of delay of RII (83.05%), where the cause (Unclear and inadequate details in drawings) ranked as the 5th
cause of delay from the 58 cause, therefore table (5) explains causes of delay ranking from design group.

Table 5: ranking for causes of delay from design group and its overall ranking
Cause RII Ranking in their Overall ranking
% group
Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents 83.05 1 1
Unclear and inadequate details in drawings 78.96 2 5
Inadequate design-team experience 78.94 3 6
Insufficient data collection and survey before design 78.27 4 7
Delays in producing design documents 74.73 5 13

2nd – Contractor:
The contractor group delay causes were ranked the second most important causes responsible for
construction delay. This is not surprising because the following causes of that group (Ineffective planning and
scheduling of project by contractor),(Poor site management and supervision by contractor) and (Poor
qualification of the contractor's technical staff) were ranked as 2nd, 3rd and 4th causes respectively from the 58
causes, that indicate the main effect of that causes group in resulting delay in the projects in Baghdad, so table
(6) explains the ranking of causes from contractor group and overall ranking

Table 6: Ranking of causes from contractor group and overall ranking

Cause RII Ranking in their Overall ranking
% group
Ineffective planning and scheduling of project by contractor 80.33 1 2
Poor site management and supervision by contractor 80 2 3
qualification of the contractor's technical staff 79.64 3 4
Difficulties in financing project by contractor 77.58 4 8
Obsolete or unsuitable construction methods 76.55 5 9
Frequent change of sub-contractors because of their inefficient work 73.79 6 15
Poor communication and coordination by contractor and other parties 72.41 7 19
Rework due to errors during construction 69.83 8 24

3rd – Owner:
Contractor, Owner and consultant together ranked owner group as the third most crucial source in
construction delay with RII of 70.365%, 75.540% and 64.952% respectively. All the respondents denote
especially the contractor that the causes (Low speed of decision making) from the owner and (Delay in progress
Payments by owner) represent the 1st and 2nd important cause in their group of overall ranking 11th and 12th in
causing delay for projects. Where the following table (7) explains ranking for causes of delay from owner group
and overall ranking

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Table 7: ranking for causes of delay from owner group and its overall ranking
Cause RII Ranking in their Overall ranking
% group
Low speed of decision making 75.25 1 11
Delay in progress Payments by owner 74.91 2 12
Delay in approving shop drawings and sample materials 73.44 3 18
Delay to deliver the site to contractor 70.33 4 22
Change orders by owner during construction 70.16 5 23
Suspension of work by owner 69.15 6 28
Poor communication and coordination by owner and other parties 62.71 7 45

4th – Consultant:
This group of delay causes was ranked fourth. In this group the cause (Delay in approving major changes in
the scope of work by consultant) is ranked as 14th cause from the overall 58 causes of delay of RII (74.57%), for
that cause owner and contractor agreed that is the most important cause from consultant group causing delay in
the construction projects. then (Inadequate experience of consultant) was ranked as second important cause in
their group of overall rank 17th of RII (73.55%).

5th – Equipment:
Equipment as delay group was ranked fifth. Owner, contractor and consultant together were greed that
(Low productivity and efficiency of equipment) and (Equipment failure or breakdown) was the most important
two causes of that group of overall rank 30th and 32nd respectively.

6th – Project:
Owner, contractor and consultant together ranked this group as sixth. The 1st and 2nd most important cause
in that group are (Original contract duration is too short) of RII (68.96%) and (Inadequate definition of
substantial completion) of RII (68.36%) were ranked as 29th and 31st from overall causes respectively.

7th - Work force:

Ranking of delay causes from work force group and its overall rank is explained in table (8) shown below:

Table 8: ranking for causes of delay from work force group and its overall ranking
Cause RII Ranking in Overall rank
% their group
Unqualified workforce 75.66 1 10
Low productivity of labors 73.66 2 16
Difficulties of skilled workforce to work in different sites because 66.33 3 37
of security conditions
Shortage of labors 59.66 4 50
Personal conflicts among labors 51.18 5 58

This group was ranked as seventh. In this group the cause (unqualified workforce) is in the most ten
important causes of delay, was ranked as 10th of RII (75.66%) as shown in table above, also this group include
the cause (personal conflicts among labors) that was ranked as the last cause of delay from the 58 overall cause.

8th – Material:
Material as delay group has RII of (64.778%) was ranked as eighth. Owner, contractor and consultant
agreed all that (Changes in material types and specifications during construction) was the most important cause
of delay, ranked as 20th from overall causes.

9th – External:
External as a delay group was ranked low as ninth. The most important cause in this group is
(Unavailability of utilities in site (such as water, electricity, telephone, etc.)) of rank 33rd with RII (67.66%).
Where the cause (Traffic control and restriction at job site) was ranked 2nd in this group and 40th from overall
causes

10th – Environmental:
All parties ranked the environmental group of delay causes as the lowest with RII of (59.75%). From all
causes in the group, all parties have seen (Effects of subsurface conditions (e.g. soil, high water table, etc. )) a
high cause, ranked 26th from the 58 causes that causing delay in construction projects identified for Baghdad
city.

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Summary And Conclusion:

The delay in construction projects in Baghdad city is studied in a field survey. The relative importance
index (RII) is calculated for the 58 causes of delay that were identified through research for Baghdad city. In the
field survey, 60 engineer represents (owner, contractor and consultant) filled a questionnaire list to indicate
relative importance index for each cause.
The study showed that all the parties of respondents agreed that the most ten important causes of delay for
construction projects arranged in descending order of importance are:
1. Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents
2. Ineffective planning and scheduling of project by contractor
3. Poor site management and supervision by contractor
4. Poor qualification of the contractor's technical staff
5. Unclear and inadequate details in drawings
6. Inadequate design-team experience
7. Insufficient data collection and survey before design
8. Difficulties in financing project by contractor
9. Obsolete or unsuitable construction methods
10. Unqualified workforce
The 58 causes were categorized into 10 groups of delay causes and were ranked. The results show that all
parties agreed together that design group was the most influential causes group. Contractor group was
considered the second most important causes group causing delay in construction projects followed by owner
group of delay causes.

Recommendation:
Results show that the most important ten causes mainly came from the design group and contractor group;
the following recommendation can be suggested in order to reduce and control delays in construction projects:

A-designer (Architect, structural, others ….)

1. Mistakes and discrepancies in design documents should be eliminated totally, otherwise; they are
common causes for redoing designs and drawings and may take additional time to make necessary corrections.
2. Data collected from project site and exact survey information give a good base to design the projects
facilities from (maps, drawings) accurately so no lost time in redesign some details that be incorrect.
B- Contractor (Companies, persons)
1. Site management and supervision from project manager and project technical staff should be assigned
as early as project is awarded even earlier to do their missions to achieve completion within specified time with
the required quality and estimated cost.
2. Contractor should mange his financial resources in order to not face money problems and plan a cash
flow by utilizing progress payments.
3. Contractor must employed workforce well qualified especially skilled labors with high productivity
and work always to improve their skills and productivity so avoid errors in works and that resulting exact
execution in specific time.
C- Owner (Mostly government ministries and directorates)
1. High speed in making decisions regarded to the projects, minimize change orders as possible during the
construction to avoid delays.
2. Pay progress payments to the contractor on time because it impairs the contractor ability to finance the
work and also motivate him to continue working in high rate.
3. Owner should ensure when awarded the project to contractor of the lowest bidding or others. That
contractor has the capabilities to satisfy the project conditions so achieve the construction works in specific
time.

Suggested Future Papers:

1. Similar studies can be performed in other governorates/cities in Iraq.
2. Study can be done for a specific type of projects, such as bridges construction, sewage projects,
pavements projects or others.
3. Detailed study can be done to evaluate the effects of delays on the cost overruns in construction
projects.

REFERENCES

Abdullah et al, 2010.” Causes of Delay in MARA Management Procurement Construction Projects”
Journal of Surveying, Construction & Property, 1(1): 123-138.

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