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A new edition of the FIDIC Red Book is under discussion. It is an issue whether this edition should be based on the current edition or there should be a complete break with tradition in favour of a contract based on a new philosophy such as that of the NEC, which is reported to be used in many countries in circumstances in which the Red Book would otherwise have been used. This article compares the two contracts on the way they deal with site conditions issues. The comparison is on equity and clarity in risk allocation, adequacy of contractual procedures for dealing with unforeseeable conditions encountered, effectiveness of contractual machinery for dispute resolution, and compliance with reported new developments in successful contractual practices in underground construction. Studies highlighting the recurring frequency of claims for unforeseen ground conditions suggest a need for such particular attention to this aspect of construction. Although a desire for some equity in risk sharing is discernible in both contracts, there is room for improvement in the clarity of both contracts. Each contract has commendable features which are not present in the other. However, a better approach involves a combination of these features with full compliance of the reported modern developments in successful contracting practices.

The purpose of this article is to identify and explore pertinent conflicting factors in construction projects; which would be helpful for project planners and implementers in assessing and taking proactive measures for reducing the adverse effect of conflict.

To achieve the study objectives, a 43‐item questionnaire survey in a five‐point Likert scale was carried out to collect professionals' experience on conflicting activities in Korean construction projects. Responses from 124 professionals working for owners, consultants and contractors were analyzed. Furthermore, ten face‐to face interviews were also carried out to ratify the findings from the field survey. Later, analytical hierarchical process method was employed to find out the importance weighting as well as responsible party for the perceived conflicts.

This study has found out six critical construction conflicting factors pertinent in Korean context. These factors with importance weighting are: differing site condition (24.1 percent), public interruption (22.5 percent), differences in change order evaluation (21 percent), design errors (17.1 percent), excessive contract quantities variation (8.2) and double meaning of specifications (7.1 percent). The study has revealed that owner (35.6 percent) and consultant (34.18 percent) are mostly responsible parties for conflicts in construction projects.

As the previous researches have been indicating increase in conflicts in construction field, this paper is very topical at the moment. This work has tried to explore the underlying problems of the construction field. The study provides field level experiences from which the inexperience construction site professionals could learn the instances of conflicts and not repeat the mistakes in their projects.

The field of environmental restoration is unique and highly complex. The purchasing function will be responsible for acquiring the restoration services for much of America′s estimated $500 billion clean‐up. Examines the specific characteristics of these projects and discusses how the unique nature of the work affects the function performed by today′s purchasing professionals. The scope and complexity of the purchasing job is vastly increased, requiring extensive teamwork and the development of dynamic and flexible purchasing strategies to handle the increased complexity and uncertainty at contaminated sites. Examines several alternative strategies for purchasing restoration services. No one strategy will fit every restoration project. The specific characteristics and unique nature of each project, and their effects on the purchasing job, must be considered in order to develop a well co‐ordinated and innovative purchasing strategy.

The aim of this study is to measure the impact of the factors affecting construction labor productivity by focusing on different types of construction works during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey, as well as discuss solutions and immediate actions.

This research was conducted in two steps. First, a quantitative survey was carried out to determine the dimension of factors negatively affecting construction labor productivity and the loss rate of different construction works from the employee perspective. The factors were identified through a literature review. The crucial relationships were highlighted as a result of a statistical analysis. Second, a survey was performed to determine the loss rate through a comparison of man-hour values before and after the beginning of the pandemic from the employer perspective. After an analysis and comparison of the results, semi-structured interviews were performed to discuss all findings and discover ways to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on construction labor productivity.

The results of the study clearly show that construction labor productivity was deeply affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Legal obligations, such as social distancing, wearing masks, and limitations on the number of workers, have been major drivers for lower labor productivity. Such obligations have a profound impact on interior construction works, especially based on teamwork. Concerning employer and labor-related factors, problems with getting payments on time, loss of income, and financial hardships are the leading factors resulting in decreased worker performance. Excavation, insulation, and plastering works were determined as the most affected construction works under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The quantitative portion of this study is limited to a sample of respondents in the Turkish construction industry. Further research is necessary to provide an in-depth review into construction labor productivity in other countries with a larger respondent sample. Another limitation is sourced by the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may turn out that some findings are outdated. Despite these limitations, the insights from this study may enable employers to understand the major drivers and deep impacts of labor productivity loss by uncovering the main vulnerabilities during the pandemic. Recommended measures may also help policy-makers and stakeholders in the construction industry take necessary and immediate actions to ensure better construction labor productivity.

The study may contribute to a better understanding of a pandemic's impact on labor productivity by focusing on both employee and employer perspectives, especially in developing countries. The paper may help employers decide which priority measures are required for each construction work separately. The study is crucial not only for minimizing the negative effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on labor productivity but also for preparing for the post-pandemic era.

For construction and management, the existing codes of practice of international organizations such as US Army Corps of Engineers, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the United Nations Office for Project Services, etc., often prove ineffective when applied in post-war countries like Afghanistan. Domestic contractors faced maximum challenges in contractual scope management, which was implemented by such organizations based on their existing codes of practice. The purpose of this paper is to understand these barriers in scope management as faced by the domestic contractors of Afghanistan.

The research employs a mixed methodology to cater to its objectives. Face-to-face structured interviews of 14 industry experts and extensive literature review were conducted to identify unique barriers pertaining to Afghanistan construction industry. Further, quantitative assessment of these barriers through the statistical tools of “mean score ranking,” “Kendall’s test” and “independent sample t-test” was carried out to understand the severity of the barriers.

In total, 39 unique barriers were identified under the groups of “scope formulation,” “scope completeness,” “scope pricing,” “scope implementation” and “scope change control.” The consequential impacts of these barriers and their existence at different stages of the project were illustrated. The most severe barriers were identified as the “inadequacy of site investigation reports” and the “unavailability of resources in local markets.”

The understanding of the challenges faced by local stakeholders, as highlighted by this study, can be utilized by these international organizations in their strategy and planning to ensure successful projects while also propagating the adoption of sustainable construction practices.

A significant amount of work has been performed in the area of identification of factors affecting construction productivity. Previous studies have tried to determine the most important factors affecting construction productivity in different countries for a long time. As a result of continuous effort in this direction, researchers have identified a wide range of factors. While the subject area has matured, no general agreement could be made on the factors affecting construction productivity. To fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to undertake a comprehensive systematic review of mainstream studies on factors affecting construction productivity published in the last 30 years (1986–2016).

A total of 46 articles from different sources such as journals, conference proceedings, dissertation and PhD theses were identified and thoroughly reviewed.

Gaps in research and practices are discussed and directions for future research have been proposed. The literature review indicates that despite noticeable differences in the socio-economic conditions across both developed countries and developing countries, an overall reasonable consensus exists on few significant factors impeding productivity. These are, namely, non-availability of materials, inadequate supervision, skill shortage, lack of proper tools and equipment and incomplete drawing and specifications. Nevertheless, implications of technology, site amenities, process studies, project culture, and impacts of physiological and psychological factors were not adequately covered in existing literature. The study also found that traditional construction projects have remained the main focus of these studies while green construction projects have been generally overlooked.

The review does not include studies that report productivity at the organisational or industry level as well as total factor productivity. The scope of the review is limited to work on identification of factors affecting productivity at the activity level in construction projects.

The outcomes of this study would help researchers and practitioners by providing the findings of previous studies in a concise manner. It is also expected that presenting a deeper and wider perspective of the research work performed until now will direct a more focussed approach on productivity improvement efforts in the construction industry.

This review paper undertakes a comprehensive systematic review of studies on identification of factors affecting construction productivity published during the last three decades.

Variations due to errors and mistakes have caused cost overruns in building projects. Therefore, it is undeniable that the gravity of such variations will be a critical factor in deciding the success of any building project. In addition, the design stage of a building project is considered the most suitable stage to identify and mitigate the causes of potential variations. However, there are no proper mechanisms to minimise the frequency or gravity of variations. Many researchers experienced the promising essence of Poka-Yoke, a mistake-proofing method aimed at increasing efficiency by early detection and eradication of the causes of potential errors. However, less attention has been paid so far to implement Poka-Yoke principles to minimise variations in the building project. Therefore, this study aims to develop a framework to minimise variations in building projects through the integration of the Poka-Yoke principles.

An interpretivism stance is adopted, and a qualitative research approach is used. The data collection technique adopted is semi-structured interviews with ten experts, and the data is analysed using code-based content analysis through NVivo12.

Research findings revealed 23 causes of variations, categorised under client-originated, consultant-originated, contractor-originated and other variations. The identified causes were then mapped with the Poka-Yoke principles to develop the framework. The research findings could prove useful to researchers, academics, government agencies and construction professionals in developing nations that have demographic/cultural and socioeconomic characteristics such as Sri Lanka.

The findings benefitted the Sri Lankan construction sector by minimising the causes of variations. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study will be the first of its kind in the Sri Lankan construction industry, leading to a better understanding of the “Poka-Yoke” principle within the building construction context.

This study aims to develop a predictive model using machine learning techniques to forecast construction dispute outcomes, thereby minimizing economic and social losses and promoting amicable settlements between parties.

This study develops a novel conceptual model incorporating project characteristics, root causes, and underlying causes to predict construction dispute outcomes. Utilizing a dataset of arbitration cases in Türkiye, the model was tested using five machine learning algorithms namely Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machines, Decision Trees, K-Nearest Neighbors, and Random Forest in a Python environment. The performance of each algorithm was evaluated to identify the most accurate predictive model.

The analysis revealed that the Support Vector Machine algorithm achieved the highest prediction accuracy at 71.65%. Twelve significant variables were identified for the best model namely, work type, root causes, delays from a contractor, extension of time, different site conditions, poorly written contracts, unit price determination, penalties, price adjustment, acceptances, delay of schedule, and extra payment claims. The study’s results surpass some existing models in the literature, highlighting the model’s robustness and practical applicability in forecasting construction dispute outcomes.

This study is unique in its consideration of various contract, dispute, and project attributes to predict construction dispute outcomes using machine learning techniques. It uses a fact-based dataset of arbitration cases from Türkiye, providing a robust and practical predictive model applicable across different regions and project types. It advances the literature by comparing multiple machine learning algorithms to achieve the highest prediction accuracy and offering a comprehensive tool for proactive dispute management.

Risk impedes the success of construction projects in developing countries due to planning in an unpredictable and poorly resourced environment. Hence, the literature suggests that practitioners are not fully aware of how important the risk identification process is. Some of the prior studies identified risks in developing countries without highlighting how they can be beneficial to the practitioners in the industry. Therefore, this study highlights this process and identifies the key risks that affect the Jordanian construction industry.

This study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed approach, two rounds of face-to-face interviews that were conducted in Jordan among 12 experts followed by a questionnaire randomly distributed to 122 practitioners. This study utilized the relative importance index, coefficient of variation, and Mann–Whitney (U) to analyze the data. Also, the factor analysis technique was used to identify and regroup the risk factors to further understand the correlation among the risks.

The result revealed an agreement among contractors’ and consultants’ responses toward allocating risks. Furthermore, several risks can be traced back to the project communication management process, highlighting a deficiency in the process. Also, four-factor groups were established, the first group includes the risk of defective design, late decisions making by other project participants and poor coordination with the subcontractor. The second group has only the risk of corruption, including bribery at sites. The third group includes stakeholders’ financial instability and inadequate distribution of responsibilities and risks. The fourth group includes adverse weather conditions and the use of illegal foreign labor.

Some of the prior studies identified risks in developing countries without highlighting how they can be beneficial to the practitioners in the industry.

It is necessary and useful to differentiate destructive from constructive conflict and avoidable from necessary claims; and also to minimize disputes arising from unresolved conflict and claims in construction projects. This paper analyses such needs and proposes means of meeting them through an appropriate classification of construction claims; an estimation of their relative significance in terms of magnitude and frequency; and an identification of the proximate and root causes of the significant claims. A hierarchy of such claims, proximate and root causes is presented, based mainly on data collected from 61 projects and on 46 responses to questionnaires in Hong Kong. Measures of the relative significance of the claims categories are also presented. The results are reinforced by observations from parallel studies in Hong Kong and elsewhere, as well as from the literature. Strategies are suggested to avoid the avoidable and mitigate the unavoidable or unavoided claims, through controlling the controllable causes. Management focus is also recommended on controlling the causes of those categories of claims and disputes that are seen to be significant in terms of higher impact and/or probability of occurrence.