Analysis of key causes of delay impacting contractor's profit in road construction projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Construction Industry can be identified as the most important sector in Sri Lanka that drives the economic growth to its potential value. It is also one of the most important pillars in achieving the country‟s vision and ability to create direct and indirect job/ career opportunities. In Sri Lankan construction industry “delays” are treated as a common and regular phenomenon dating throughout the recent history. Nevertheless, these so-called delays can negatively affect all the parties involved in the project by causing mitigations, cost overruns, loss of productivity/ revenue, and termination of contract. One of the major negative effect of delay is loss of profit of the contractors. This study was aimed to safeguard Sri Lankan contractor‟s profit through the mitigation of key causes of delay impacting on contractor‟s profit. To gain a more vivid perspective, questionnaire surveys were distributed among experts who were involved in the field of construction in Sri Lanka. Under the categorization of delay causes, six groups were identified as the most potential to affect the contractor‟s profit and was subjected to questionnaire survey one. To gain a better perspective sixty-three causes of delays were identified under these six categories. From the outcome of questionnaire survey one, twenty-one factors were identified as key delay causes by the risk matrix in road construction projects in Sri Lanka. Through the findings, Time and cost overrun were the common effects of delays in construction projects. Due to the magnitude and frequency of these overruns, these have come to pose a significant financial risk and negative impact to the contractor‟s profit. The identified twenty-one causes of delays, were subjected to questionnaire survey two. The professionals who responded in survey one, imparted on the survey two, by identifying major delay causes impact the contractor‟s profit. The research identified most effective methods to mitigate causes of delays in Road construction projects as frequent coordination between the parties involved, Effective project planning and scheduling, site management and supervision, frequent progress meeting and Accurate initial cost estimates. Key Words: Causes of delays, Road construction, Risk matrix