Causes of time overrun in construction phase of building projects : a case study on Department of Engineering Services of Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council

The main purpose of this study is to identify the significant causes of time overrun in construction phase of building projects handled by the Department of Engineering Services (DOES) of Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council (SPC) and to propose mitigative measures. The preliminary investigation of this research revealed that 80% of the building projects handled by the DOES are not completed within the agreed contract period. The study determines 51 factors causing time overrun in the context of the DOES, which is the basis of the study. The perceptions of clients, consultants and contractors regarding frequency of occurrence and severity of these factors were obtained using questionnaire. Using the indices of frequency, severity and thereby the indices of significance were computed for all the factors. ‘ Rainy we ather’, ‘ poor liquidity of the contractor’ and ‘ inaccurate planning and scheduling of projects are identified by all parties as the most significant factors causing time overrun. According to the views of both clients and consultants, ‘contractor related factors’ are the most significant causes of time overrun. As for the degree of agreement of perceptions on delay causes. the highest is between clients and consultants (68%) and the lowest between the contractors and clients (50%). Finally, the research makes propositions separately for each party in the contract in order to mitigate the respective contribution towards time overrun. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/engineer.v46i3.6780 ENGINEER, Vol. 46, No.03, pp. 9-18 2013