Causes of delays in the construction phase of Chinese building projects

PurposeDelays during construction are one of the common scenarios in the construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to identify the primary causes of delays in the construction phase of building construction projects in China.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaire survey approach was adopted across the four typical cities in China, namely, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen. In total, 115 sets of valid responded questionnaires were collected and analyzed.FindingsThe results show that the causes of variations, delays in progress payments, exceptionally low bids and subcontractors’ poor performance and communication issues were the most important causes of delays in China.Originality/valueThis research is the first questionnaire survey on the causes of delays in the construction phase of building construction projects in China. The comparative analysis shows two unique causes of delays in the Chinese construction industry, such as “difficulty in claiming indemnity” and “unreasonable upfront capital demanded by client.” It also reveals different ranked causes of delays as per distinguished political and economic situations in China. The research findings can be referred by construction projects in other countries that are funded or partnered with China.

[1]  Nashwan Dawood,et al.  Development of a client-based risk management methodology for the early design stage of construction processes: Applied to the KSA , 2015 .

[2]  Michael T. Callahan,et al.  Construction Delay Claims , 1992 .

[3]  Hesham A. Bassioni,et al.  Causes of Delay in Building Construction Projects in Egypt , 2008 .

[4]  Sadi Assaf,et al.  Causes of delay in large construction projects , 2006 .

[5]  Wenxue Lu,et al.  Identification and analyses of hidden transaction costs in project dispute resolutions , 2015 .

[6]  George Agyekum-Mensah,et al.  The professionals’ perspective on the causes of project delay in the construction industry , 2017 .

[7]  Gary David Holt,et al.  Factors influencing construction time and cost overruns on high-rise projects in Indonesia , 1997 .

[8]  Kumar Neeraj Jha,et al.  Critical factors affecting schedule performance , 2017 .

[9]  Amund Bruland,et al.  Causes of Delay in Road Construction Projects , 2012 .

[10]  Murali Sambasivan,et al.  Causes and effects of delays in Malaysian construction industry , 2007 .

[11]  Anil Sawhney,et al.  Analysing factors affecting delays in Indian construction projects , 2012 .

[12]  Chabota Kaliba,et al.  Cost escalation and schedule delays in road construction projects in Zambia , 2009 .

[13]  Stephen O. Ogunlana,et al.  Problems causing delays in major construction projects in Thailand , 2008 .

[14]  Sadi Assaf,et al.  Causes of Delay in Large Building Construction Projects , 1995 .

[15]  Tommy Y. Lo,et al.  Construction Delays in Hong Kong Civil Engineering Projects , 2006 .

[16]  J Luo,et al.  The evolution of the Chinese construction industry , 2000 .

[17]  Othman Mohamed,et al.  Delay Mitigation in the Malaysian Construction Industry , 2006 .

[18]  Shahab Shoar,et al.  A hybrid SD-DEMATEL approach to develop a delay model for construction projects , 2017 .

[19]  Pablo Ballesteros-Pérez,et al.  Climate and construction delays: Case study in Chile , 2015 .

[20]  Doug Guthrie,et al.  Social connections in China : institutions, culture, and the changing nature of Guanxi , 2002 .

[21]  Patrick X.W. Zou,et al.  Understanding the key risks in construction projects in China , 2007 .

[22]  Omar Osman,et al.  Causes of Delays in Iranian Construction Projects , 2010 .

[23]  Keith Pickavance,et al.  Delay and Disruption in Construction Contracts , 1997 .

[24]  Weisheng Lu,et al.  Critical Success Factors for Competitiveness of Contractors: China Study , 2008 .

[25]  Arazi Idrus,et al.  Construction delays causing risks on time and cost - a critical review , 2012 .

[26]  Bon-Gang Hwang,et al.  Comparison of schedule delay and causal factors between traditional and green construction projects , 2013 .

[27]  T. E. Dinero.  Scale development. , 1996, Journal of health & social policy.

[28]  Long D. Nguyen,et al.  Examination of communication processes in design-build project delivery in building construction , 2017 .

[29]  Martin Loosemore.  Risk Management in Projects , 2005 .

[30]  Cletus Moobela,et al.  Profiling causative factors leading to construction project delays in the United Arab Emirates , 2017 .

[31]  Serdar Ulubeyli,et al.  Causes of delays in construction projects in Turkey , 2012 .

[32]  Ayman Abu Hammad,et al.  Delays in construction projects: The case of Jordan , 2008 .

[33]  Yuhua An,et al.  Research on the Effectiveness of Risk Sharing in the Management of Construction Contracts , 2014 .

[34]  Djoen San Santoso,et al.  Analyzing Delays of Road Construction Projects in Cambodia: Causes and Effects , 2016 .

[35]  Andrew S. Chang.  Reasons for cost and schedule increase for engineering design projects , 2002 .

[36]  Ronald McCaffer,et al.  FACTORS OF NON-EXCUSABLE DELAYS THAT INFLUENCE CONTRACTORS' PERFORMANCE , 1998 .

[37]  Kumar Neeraj Jha,et al.  Critical factors affecting cost performance: a case of Ethiopian public construction projects , 2018 .

[38]  Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas,et al.  Multi-criteria analysis of Projects' performance in construction , 2014 .

[39]  N. Kartam,et al.  Delays and cost increases in the construction of private residential projects in Kuwait , 2005 .

[40]  Bon-Gang Hwang,et al.  Green building projects: schedule performance, influential factors and solutions , 2015 .

[41]  He Zhi,et al.  Risk management for overseas construction projects , 1995 .

[42]  M. Meek,et al.  IT risk management , 2014 .

[43]  M. Kumaraswamy.  Conflicts, claims and disputes in construction , 1997 .

[44]  Sm Badi,et al.  Relationship marketing in Guanxi networks: A social network analysis study of Chinese construction small and medium-sized enterprises , 2016 .

[45]  Jyh-Bin Yang,et al.  Causes of Delay in the Planning and Design Phases for Construction Projects , 2010 .

[46]  D. Aldous.  The Central Limit Theorem for Real and Banach Valued Random Variables , 1981 .

[47]  Bon-Gang Hwang,et al.  Investigating the client-related rework in building projects: The case of Singapore , 2014 .

[48]  Ajibade A. Aibinu,et al.  Construction delays and their causative factors in Nigeria , 2006 .

[49]  Edward G. Carmines,et al.  Reliability and Validity Assessment , 1979 .

[50]  S. Ogunlana,et al.  Construction delays in a fast-growing economy: Comparing Thailand with other economies , 1996 .

[51]  Jim Mason.  Delay and disruption , 2016 .

[52]  Heap-Yih Chong,et al.  Revisiting U.K. Delay and Disruption Protocol: Distinguished Features for Contract Drafting , 2015 .

[53]  David M. Leishman.  Protecting Engineer Against Construction Delay Claims: NDC , 1991 .

[54]  Mohan M. Kumaraswamy,et al.  A comparative study of causes of time overruns in Hong Kong construction projects , 1997 .

[55]  Søren L. Buhl,et al.  What Causes Cost Overrun in Transport Infrastructure Projects? , 2004, 1304.4476.

[56]  Jimmie Hinze,et al.  Cost and Schedule Risk Analysis of Bridge Construction in Pakistan: Establishing Risk Guidelines , 2014 .

[57]  Sameh M. El-Sayegh,et al.  Significant factors causing delay in the UAE construction industry , 2006 .