Exploring delay causes of road construction projects in Egypt

Abstract Construction delays are a common phenomenon in civil engineering projects in Egypt including road construction projects. Therefore, it is essential to study and analyze causes of road construction delays. This paper studied a list of construction delay causes gathered from literature having different types of construction, different countries, different periods and different numbers of delay causes and delay groups. A questionnaire and personal interviews have formed the basis of this paper listing 293 delay causes. The questionnaire survey was distributed to 500 construction participants and 389 were received who represent consultants, contractors and site/design engineers excluding the owner representing the government in road projects as one party only. Relative Importance Index (RII) is calculated and according to the highest values the top twenty and the least twenty delay causes of construction projects in Egypt are determined. A case study is analyzed and compared to the most important delay causes in the paper. The test results reveal good correlation of causes and groups between contractors and site/design engineers and between consultants and site design engineers and a somewhat low correlation between contractors and consultants. So there are no root causes that can be taking for granted to be most or least effective delay causes. Proposed model for predicting actual road construction project duration was developed; a real case study tested the accuracy of proposed model. According to the analysis of case study, the most contributing causes and groups to delays were discussed, and some future recommendations were proposed in order to control and minimize delays in road construction projects. These findings can be helpful for project managers to mitigate the road construction delays in Egypt. In order to effectively overcome the road construction delays in developing countries, suggestions are made for fundamental and large‐scale reforms in procurement systems and stakeholders’ management. Also, this paper is useful for both researchers and road construction parties and allows detailed and repeatable analysis of the progress of a road construction project in order to facilitate and achieve a competitive level of time, cost and quality for effective road construction projects.

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

[2]  Murat Gunduz,et al.  Quantification of Delay Factors Using the Relative Importance Index Method for Construction Projects in Turkey , 2013 .

[3]  Norngainy Mohd Tawil,et al.  Identification of the Causes of Construction Delay in Malaysia , 2012 .

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

[5]  Martin Skitmore,et al.  Causes of delays in Saudi Arabian public sector construction projects , 2009 .

[6]  Ekambaram Palaneeswaran,et al.  Exploring Delays in Victoria-Based Astralian Pipeline Projects , 2011 .

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

[8]  Keith R. Molenaar,et al.  Analysis of Causes of Delay and Time Performance in Construction Projects , 2014 .

[9]  Norngainy Mohd Tawil,et al.  Cause of construction delay - Theoretical framework , 2011 .

[10]  Frank Fugar,et al.  Delays in Building Construction Projects in Ghana , 2010 .

[11]  Agnieszka Leśniak,et al.  Construction Delays in Clients Opinion – Multivariate Statistical Analysis , 2015 .

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

[13]  Long Le-Hoai,et al.  Delay and cost overruns in Vietnam large construction projects: A comparison with other selected countries , 2008 .

[14]  James E. Diekmann,et al.  Concurrent delays in construction projects , 1987 .

[15]  Minhyuk Jung,et al.  Weather-Delay Simulation Model Based on Vertical Weather Profile for High-Rise Building Construction , 2016 .

[16]  Hamdi A. Bashir,et al.  Causes of Delay in Construction Projects in the Oil and Gas Industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: A Case Study , 2015 .

[17]  Murat Gunduz,et al.  Fuzzy Assessment Model to Estimate the Probability of Delay in Turkish Construction Projects , 2015 .

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

[19]  Ka Chi Lam,et al.  Demotivating factors influencing the productivityof civil engineering projects , 2004 .

[20]  Mohammad Hossein Fallahnejad,et al.  Delay causes in Iran gas pipeline projects , 2013 .

[21]  Remon F. Aziz,et al.  Ranking of delay factors in construction projects after Egyptian revolution , 2013 .

[22]  Nuhu Braimah,et al.  Understanding construction delay analysis and the role of pre-construction programming , 2014 .

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

[24]  David Greenwood,et al.  A comparative analysis of administrative delays in hospital buildings , 2001 .

[25]  Maged Georgy,et al.  Ontology-based Investigation of Construction Delay Analysis Methodologies in Egypt , 2014 .

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

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

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

[29]  Muhammad Aslam,et al.  Effects of Delay in construction Projects of Punjab-Pakistan: An Empirical Study , 2013 .

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

[31]  Nashwan Dawood,et al.  A Risk Management Approach to Address Construction Delays from the Client Aspect , 2014 .

[32]  Berrak Bahadir,et al.  Housing market dynamics with delays in the construction sector , 2014 .

[33]  Min Liu,et al.  Causes of Variation in Construction Project Task Starting Times and Duration , 2011 .

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

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

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

[37]  Marcelo Hazin Alencar,et al.  Delay-time inspection model with dimensioning maintenance teams: A study of a company leasing construction equipment , 2015, Comput. Ind. Eng..

[38]  Mohamed Y. Hegab,et al.  Delay Time Analysis in Microtunneling Projects , 2007 .

[39]  A. M. Odeh,et al.  Causes of construction delay: traditional contracts , 2002 .

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

[41]  A. Samer Ezeldin,et al.  Causes of Construction Delays for Engineering Projects: An Egyptian Perspective , 2013 .

[42]  David Finnie.  Contract delay: What is it and how are we performing? , 2012 .

[43]  Lauri Koskela,et al.  Need for Alternative Research Approaches in Construction Management: Case of Delay Studies , 2013 .

[44]  F. C. Harris,et al.  Delays on Large Construction Projects , 1986 .

[45]  Jyh-Bin Yang,et al.  Critical path effect based delay analysis method for construction projects , 2012 .

[46]  Tarek Hegazy,et al.  Delay Analysis under Multiple Baseline Updates , 2008 .

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

[48]  Samuel Labi,et al.  Empirical Assessment of the Likelihood and Duration of Highway Project Time Delays , 2012 .

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

[50]  Geoffrey Qiping Shen,et al.  Factors Affecting Schedule Delay, Cost Overrun, and Quality Level in Public Construction Projects , 2016 .

[51]  Farrukh Arif,et al.  Concurrent Delays in Construction: International Legal Perspective , 2014 .

[52]  Mohamed M. Marzouk,et al.  Analyzing delay causes in Egyptian construction projects , 2013, Journal of advanced research.

[53]  Bon-Gang Hwang,et al.  Critical Success Factors for Key Project Players and Objectives: Case Study of Singapore , 2013 .

[54]  Kassim Gidado,et al.  Causes of project delay in the construction industry in Afghanistan , 2012 .

[55]  M. Haseeb,et al.  PROBLEMS OF PROJECTS AND EFFECTS OF DELAYS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY OF PAKISTAN , 2012, Australian Journal of Business and Management Research.