ANALYSIS OF CAUSES OF DELAY IN ANY CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

Vidya M. Patil1, Aniket M. Undale2, Govinda M. Singh3, Sangram S. Patil4,

Sushant T. Sathe5 and Vaibhav H. Pisal6
1
Asst.professor, Civil Department, Annasaheb Dange College of Engineering and Technology,Ashta
2,3,4,5,6
B.E scholar, Civil Department, Annasaheb Dange College of Engineering and Technology,Ashta
Abstract— Construction industry is one of the most important industries in the India. Construction
sector gives the contribution to build up the social, cultural and economic development of the
country. But now a day’s delay for the construction projects has become the main threat to all
developments related to this sector. These delays are common in all types of construction project.
Although these delays can’t be avoided as they contribute different scales, they can be minimized by
previously knowing them and taking necessary precautions. The study was mainly focused to find
out the major causes contributing to delay in construction and to give the remedial measures to
minimize them. Total 36 causes were found by previous studies. The survey was carried out by
distributing questionnaire to the various parties of construction such as contractor, consultant and
owner. The collected data obtained from the questionnaire survey was analyzed by using relative
importance index and the major factors were ranked according to their contribution to delay.
Keywords—Construction projects, Causes of construction delay, Questionnaire survey, Relative
importance index, Construction industry
I. INTRODUCTION
Most of construction projects suffer delays. The effects of these delays may be of
considerable magnitude on the efficiency of the project. It is possible to reduce these delays through
recognition of their real causes. Definitions of delays in construction can be presented in several
ways. Delay could be defined as the time overrun beyond the accomplishment time in the agreement
or beyond the time the contract parties agree upon for the delivery of the project (S. Assaf and S. Al-
Hejji, 2006). Also it can be defined as the distinction between the real finish date and the estimated
date (S. Faradi, and S.M. El-Sayegh, 2006). Also it is defined as the period during which the project
or part of it has been extended or not completed due to unexpected conditions (B. Bramble and M.
Callahan, 1987). Therefore the delay in construction project can be expressed as the time overrun or
extension of time behind the date agreed upon by the contract parties. Construction delay is a world-
wide incidence in the construction industries, which is generally related to overrunning cost and
time. Construction delays have an adverse impact on the project sponsor, client, project team
member and participant involved in the entire project, which frequently result to disagreement,
suspicion, financial problem and claims, lawsuit, and renegotiations (Megha and Bhatt 2013).
Although the Indian construction industry has gained far more importance in recent times
because of opening up of Indian markets and the arrival of megaprojects for infrastructure
development, the performance of Indian construction projects. A study conducted by Infrastructure
and Project Monitoring Division of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation reports
that out of 646 central sector projects (which are of order of more than $4.45 million) Costing around
$50 trillion and average project duration of 6 to 7 years, about 40% are behind schedule and the
delay ranges from 1 to 252 months (http://www.mospi.nic.in).
II. OBJECTIVES
1) To investigate the major causes of delay in building construction.
2) To investigate the effects of construction projects delay.
3) To suggest the possible ways of minimizing the delay in project.

DOI:10.21884/IJMTER.2017.4063.XCNKY 128
 International Journal of Modern Trends in Engineering and Research (IJMTER)
Volume 04, Issue 2, [February– 2017] ISSN (Online):2349–9745; ISSN (Print):2393-8161

III. LITERATURE REVIEW

In 2002, Abadalla M. Odeh , Hussien T. Battaineh carried out the study for finding the most
important causes of delay in construction project with traditional type contract from the viewpoint of
construction contractors and consultants. Results of this survey indicate that contractor and
consultant agreed that owner interference, inadequate contractor experience, financing and payment,
labour productivity, slow decision making, improper planning, delay due to subcontractor are among
the top ten most important factors (Abadalla M. Odeh , Hussien T. Battaineh, 2002).
In 2011, N. Hamzah, M.A. Khoiry, I. Arshad, N. M. Tawil and A. I. Che Ani studied the
delay that happened in public higher learning institution that conducted by Ministry of Higher
Education. A numbers of cases are recorded. Recent case is at main campus of University Malaysia
Kelantan and second case of delay is a construction of research complex in National University of
Malaysia, Bangi. Both cases are experienced delay. They stated that delays give increase to
disturbance of work and loss of productivity, late completion of project increased time related costs,
and third party claims and abandonment or termination of contract. It is important that general
management keep track of project progress to reduce the possibility of delay occurrence or identify it
at early stages (N. Hamzah, M.A. Khoiry, I. Arshad, N. M. Tawil and A. I. Che Ani, 2011).
M. E. Abd El-Razek; H. A. Bassioni; and A. M. Mobarak studied the causes of delay in
building construction projects in Egypt in 2008. In their study they stated that “Financing by
contractor during construction” was identified as the top cause of delay by both the owner and
consultant. The view of the consultant can be considered as an intermediate result with a degree of
impartiality. Furthermore, the contractor results identified this cause as the third most important, and
the first within his responsibility. These results show how this cause can greatly affect a project delay
and suggest the importance of using cash flow analysis, based on a realistic schedule on the project
level, within the whole contractor organization to coordinate cash requirement among projects (M. E.
Abd El-Razek; H. A. Bassioni; and A. M. Mobarak, 2008).
IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology for the present study included the two stages which are primary
data collection and secondary data collection. The primary data collection included collection of
information from personal investigation, questionnaire survey, interviews of various respondents.
The primary data was collected through survey by making use of questionnaire and interviews of
respondents. The questionnaires were given to the respondents who were supposed to fill the
questionnaire and return it back.
In the secondary data collection, the data is collected from already published, analyzed work
of other researchers or people. Therefore this information was used to support the current study or
findings. In this study secondary data was collected through online journals, published articles, books
and internet websites. The analysis of the collected data from the questionnaire was carried out on
Likert scale as less important, medium important, high important, and very high important. Then by
using Relative Importance Index (RII), rank of the causes contributing major delays in the
construction was found out.
V. QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
Questionnaires used for the survey were consisting of selected causes of the construction
delay from the previous literature. In order to quantitatively confirm the causes of construction delay
obtained from the previous literature , questionnaire were designed for contractor, consultant and the
stack holder of the survey may keep themselves apart from the contribution to cause delay to
construction, so the different questionnaires were designed for contractor, consultant and owner.
Each cause was measured on the Likert scale of four points as less important, medium important,
high important, very high important.

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VI. DATA ANALYSIS

Data analysis of the questionnaire is to find out the importance of each cause of construction
delay, its effects on the construction and the possible ways to minimize the construction delay. The
analysis of data obtained is done by using index called as Relative Importance Index (RII). Data
analysis consists of following:
1) Calculation of relative importance index of each cause –Relative Importance Index (RII) is
calculated by using following formula as

RII=

Where,
RII = Relative Importance Index
W = Weight given to each cause by respondent (1 – 4)
A = Highest weight (i.e. 4)
N = Total number of respondents
2) Ranking of causes of delay depending upon the Relative Importance Index (RII).
VII. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Table (1), table (2) and table (2) show the factors causing delay in the construction projects with their
importance index and the ranking of each factor according to their Relative Importance Index.
As shown in table no (1), according to contractor’s point of view; first important factor of
delay is “Shortage of labour” which has Relative Importance Index (RII) as 0.977. The second
important factor is “Unrealistic contract duration” which has RII as 0.955. Third ranked factor of
delay is “Slow permits by government or municipality” with the importance factor as 0.932.
According to consultant’s point of view as shown in table (2), first important factor is “Shortage of
labour” with an importance index (RII) of 0.942 points. Second importance factor is “Delay in
payment by owner” with an importance index of 0.846 and the third importance factor is “Shortage
of construction material in market”with an importance index 0.808. According to owner’s point of
view “Improper labour management”, “Complexity of design”, “Shortage of labour” are top three
importance factors with an importance index of 0.955 points.
Table 1- Ranking factor by contractor’s point of view
NO. Delay Causes RII Value Rank
1 Inadequate experience of consultant 0.818 10
2 Delay in producing design documents 0.795 11
3 Unclear details in drawing 0.568 21
4 Complexity of design 0.841 9
5 Redesigning/ changes in original design 0.886 7
6 Delay in giving instructions 0.591 20
7 Delay in payment by owner 0.886 6
8 Change in order by owner during construction 0.614 19
9 Slow decision making by owner 0.705 14
10 Suspension of work by owner 0.864 8
11 Unrealistic contract duration 0.955 2

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 International Journal of Modern Trends in Engineering and Research (IJMTER)
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12 Poor communication of owner with contractor 0.500 23

13 Delay in material delivery 0.659 17
14 Shortage of construction material in market 0.727 13
15 Shortage of equipment 0.682 16
16 Low efficiency of equipment 0.477 25
17 Shortage of labours 0.977 1
18 Effect of Subsurface conditions (Water table, hard rock) 0.409 26
19 Accidents during construction 0.636 18
20 Slow permits by government/ municipality 0.932 3
21 Unavailability of utilities at site (water, electricity) 0.705 15
22 Changes in government regulations / laws 0.909 4
23 Legal disputes between various parties 0.773 12
24 Corruption 0.886 5
25 Inaccessibility of site 0.545 22
26 Bad weather condition 0.500 24

Table 2- Ranking factor by consultant’s point of view

NO Delay Causes RII Value Rank
1 Rework due to error during construction 0.365 30
2 Improper construction method followed by contractor 0.500 29
3 Inadequate supervision by contractor 0.635 23
4 Ineffective planning and scheduling by contractor 0.769 7
5 Less experience of contractor 0.712 10
6 Contractors work load 0.673 16
7 Frequent changes in sub-contractors 0.673 19
8 Improper labour management 0.615 24
9 Improper material management 0.577 26
10 Less experience of technical staff of contractor 0.635 22
11 Delay in payment by owner 0.846 2
12 Change in order by owner during construction 0.692 13
13 Slow decision making by owner 0.712 12
14 Suspension of work by owner 0.692 14
15 Unrealistic contract duration 0.673 18
16 Poor communication of owner with contractor 0.500 28
17 Delay in material delivery 0.788 4

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 International Journal of Modern Trends in Engineering and Research (IJMTER)
Volume 04, Issue 2, [February– 2017] ISSN (Online):2349–9745; ISSN (Print):2393-8161

18 Shortage of construction material in market 0.808 3

19 Shortage of equipment 0.692 15
20 Low efficiency of equipment 0.538 27
21 Shortage of labours 0.942 1
22 Effect of Subsurface conditions (Water table, hard rock) 0.635 20

23 Accidents during construction 0.673 17

24 Slow permits by government/ municipality 0.788 5
25 Unavailability of utilities at site (water, electricity) 0.712 11
26 Changes in government regulations / laws 0.769 6
27 Legal disputes between various parties 0.712 9
28 Corruption 0.577 25
29 Inaccessibility of site 0.731 8
30 Bad weather condition 0.635 21

Table 3- Ranking factor by owner’s point of view

NO Delay Causes RII Value Rank
1 Rework due to error during construction 0.864 8
2 Improper construction method followed by contractor 0.818 10
3 Inadequate supervision by contractor 0.773 14
4 Ineffective planning and scheduling by contractor 0.636 20
5 Less experience of contractor 0.727 18
6 Contractors work load 0.932 4
7 Frequent changes in sub-contractors 0.568 22
8 Improper labour management 0.955 1
9 Improper material management 0.818 12
10 Less experience of technical staff of contractor 0.591 21
11 Inadequate experience of consultant 0.500 27
12 Delay in producing design documents 0.773 13
13 Unclear details in drawing 0.864 9
14 Complexity of design 0.955 2
15 Redesigning/ changes in original design 0.750 17
16 Delay in giving instructions 0.545 23
17 Delay in material delivery 0.705 19
18 Shortage of construction material in market 0.818 11
19 Shortage of equipment 0.886 7

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 International Journal of Modern Trends in Engineering and Research (IJMTER)
Volume 04, Issue 2, [February– 2017] ISSN (Online):2349–9745; ISSN (Print):2393-8161

20 Low efficiency of equipment 0.568 24

21 Shortage of labours 0.955 3
22 Effect of Subsurface conditions (Water table, hard rock) 0.545 25
23 Accidents during construction 0.500 28
24 Slow permits by government/ municipality 0.773 15
25 Unavailability of utilities at site (water, electricity) 0.500 29
26 Changes in government regulations / laws 0.886 5
27 Legal disputes between various parties 0.727 16
28 Corruption 0.886 6
29 Inaccessibility of site 0.545 26
30 Bad weather condition 0.386 30

VIII. CONCLUSION
The study focused on finding the major causes of construction delay. Total 36 causes of delay
were selected based upon the literature study. Based on these selected causes questionnaires were
formed for contractors, consultants and owners separately and distributed to them. The results were
analysed using Relative Importance Index (RII) and causes were ranked by contractor point of view,
consultant point of view and owner point of view.
According to contractor’s point of view “Shortage of labour” is most important factor causing
construction delay. Also according to consultant’s point of view “Shortage of labour” is the most
important factor for delay. And by owner’s point of view “Improper labour management” is most
important factor of delay. So the most important factors of delay according to all three stockholders
of survey are related to “Labours”.
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