A Study on delays in building industry in Sri Lanka from professional perspective

Abstract

The author has selected this research to study about the delays in Sri Lankan building construction projects to identify significant causes of delay and its magnitudes, responsible parties for the delays, their adverse effects and its magnitudes on project completion and performances. Also, the research aimed to study the magnitude of remedies to minimize or avoid possible delays in building construction projects. The research study achieved the Aim of the research by establishing the five numbers of interrelating linked objectives established at the beginning of the study. There are forty-four leading causes of delay divided into four groups according to the party responsible for such delays as; the contractor, the client, the consultant, and the government and external. The research methodology adopted both a questionnaire survey and interviews, to collect the primary data to find the magnitude of causes of delays and effects from the outcomes of the data analysis according to that, twenty number of significant causes identified in this research study ( Refer Table 18 & A9-4&5 under Appendix 9). Thus, this research study recognized eight number of significant effects magnitude due to the identified of causes of delays such as time overrun, cost overrun, disputes, arbitration, idling of resources, litigation, negative social impact and total abundant. Also, the results confirmed that both the clients and the contractor are equally responsible for delays in Sri Lankan building construction projects. Finally, this research study recommends fifteen remedies and its magnitude to minimize/mitigate potential delays in building construction projects in Sri Lanka described in the study. The outcomes of the research identify highest magnitude three significant remedies to avoid or minimize delays such as; the client shall pay the contractor on-time, the contractor shall improve labor productivity, and he shall have proper financial planning and proper management with planning to be improved.