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The purpose of this paper is to perform a quantitative analysis of the literature in order to determine the main causes of delay in construction projects.

A set of 47 articles from the literature were analyzed, yielding 1,057 different causes of delay. In order to analyze and compare the main causes of delay, their degree of impact was studied statistically. Next, a mention count method was used to determine the primary causes of construction project delays and through the use of Pareto diagrams, the main causes of delays in construction projects were determined.

It was determined that the three main causes of construction project delay are problems that occur during execution, administrative problems and labor conflicts; together they account for almost 80 percent of the causes found in the literature. Moreover, it was deduced that problems during execution are based on unpredictable events, while administrative problems are rooted in poor cash flow management. In addition, seven sub-groups of delay causes were identified as being major due to the number of mentions detected. These were “Changes during construction,” “Poor construction management,” “Construction errors,” “Economic/Financial,” “Conflict/Relationship” and “Lack of experience.”

This study provides a unique classification method, which was successfully validated, for the causes of construction project delay. Thanks to the classification, designers may use this information as a starting point for designing future construction projects, thereby minimizing the appearance of unforeseen events during construction. Moreover, the results of this study will help project managers be aware of the possible causes of delay that may affect their construction projects. This understanding can help them identify potential risks in the initial phases of the project and allow decisions to be made early before problems arise or the consequences of the deviations become irreparable. The results can also serve as input for the development of future management improvement methodologies that are aimed at reducing costs and ensuring that deadlines are met.

Identifying the factors and causes of the delays will allow mitigation actions to be taken in order to avoid delays, which will ultimately allow homes, schools, hospitals and other necessary infrastructure to be delivered on time or even before the planned date.

This study provides a unique classification method that was successfully validated. Thanks to the classification, designers may use this information as a starting point for designing future construction projects, thereby minimizing unforeseen events during construction.

Construction delay is the most common issue and creates many adverse effects in any construction industry. This study has investigated the views of engineers, project managers and contractors on the causes of delay during a construction phase to identify potential delay factors, negative effects on project delivery and prioritize the delay factors.

An extensive literature review and interview with construction stakeholders have been conducted to identify potential causes of construction delays and design a questionnaire survey. The final questionnaire was designed with 40 potential delay factors, and a total of 102 valid Bangladeshi construction stakeholders responded to it. The result was analyzed by the relative importance index.

Among the 40 delay factors, the top five most influencing delay factors are “delay in progress payments,” “rework due to mistakes during construction,” “lack of skilled labor,” “poor monitoring and control of activities” and “delays in the making of a decision.” The top five most damaging effects of delay are “time overrun,” “cost overrun,” “disputes,” “arbitration” and “litigation,” among ten negative effects of construction delay. All construction stakeholders believe that the owner-related, consultant-related and contractor-related groups are the first, second and third most important groups of delay factors.

The outcome of this study would enable the Bangladeshi construction industry to develop strategies to overcome delay factors and their harmful effects. By focusing on the outcome of this research and prioritizing the critical factors, the construction industry of Bangladesh will be able to minimize construction delay significantly and propagate the progress of the construction industry by delivering quality projects timely.

The present paper presents the major causes of delays in the construction industry in Lebanon and the relative importance of these postponements. A survey of a randomly selected sample of 11 owners, 15 contractors and 10 architectural/engineering (A/E) firms from Lebanon was undertaken. The survey included 64 causes of delay, grouped into 10 major groups, in which the participants were asked to indicate their level of importance of each delay. The level of importance of the causes and the groups were measured and ranked by the importance index for owners, contractors and A/E firms. It was found that all three parties generally agreed on the ranking of the major categories of delay factors. Owners had more concerns with regard to financial issues, while contractors ranked contractual relationships highest, and finally, A/E firms ranked project management highest.

Delays and cost overruns are evidently frequent problems in the construction industries of many developed and developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to assess factors leading to time overruns (delays) and cost overruns in construction projects in the Gaza Strip. Since there appear to be additional special contributors to delays here, the relative perceptions of contractors, consultants and owners are compared, based on a listing of causal factors derived from previous studies elsewhere, together with other factors arising from special conditions in the Gaza Strip.

A survey of a randomly selected samples yielded responses from 66 contractors, 27 consultants, and 31 owners. The survey included 110 delay factors/causes which were grouped into 12 major groups. The same survey also included 42 cost overrun factors. The level of importance of the delays and cost overrun factors were measured and ranked by their importance indexes, according to the perspectives of contractors, consultants, and owners.

There seems to be a general agreement between contractors, consultants and owners regarding causes of delays and cost overruns. The main four causes of time delays included strikes and border closures, material‐related factors, lack of materials in markets, and delays in materials delivery to the site. Additionally, the main three causes for cost overruns included price fluctuations of construction materials, contractor delays in material and equipment delivery, and inflation.

The outcome of this paper will assist owners, contractors, and consultants in understanding the reasons for delays and cost overruns, thus eliminating or minimizing these causes. This could be achieved by better management of the projects and by finding new methods for storing the critical materials from the beginning of the project. Furthermore, the local government is advised to initiate legislation to overcome problems arising from monopolies in the supply of construction materials.

Construction delays are a common problem in the Egyptian construction industry. Frequent delays in a project can lead to disputes and litigation. This paper aims to study and analyze the causes of construction delays.

This research identifies delay causes in residential projects in Egypt and analyzes these causes with the relative importance index method. The feedback of construction experts was obtained through interviews. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was prepared. Fifty-six different delay causes were identified and categorized into eight categories based on a literature review and interviews with 36 experts from the construction industry who represent owners, consultants and contractors.

According to the highest values of the relative importance index, the top ten delay causes of residential projects in Egypt are determined. Statistical analysis is carried out using the analysis of variance method to test delay causes obtained from the survey, which revealed a good correlation between residential projects parties with respect to most of the delay causes. A fuzzy logic model using MATLAB is developed for determining the probability of delay of residential projects, and the model was tested in a real case study and was found to be satisfactory.

Delay causes in residential projects in Egypt were identified, and these causes were analyzed using the relative importance index method and fuzzy logic.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the main causes of delays in the projects are from the client (relative importance index (RII)=0.716), labor and equipment (RII=0.701) and contractor (RII=0.698). Hence determining the contractual responsibility of delay is the most likely source of dispute in construction projects and many techniques have been used in the courts to demonstrate the criticalities of a delay event on the project schedule. Therefore, authors try to investigate all process-based techniques of delay claims and evaluated and conformed them with principles by Society of Construction Law (SCL) protocol and Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International (AACEI) in order to choose the best techniques based on the specific circumstances of each project.

This section is divided into two distinct parts: refers to the methods used to assess the perceptions of clients, consultants, and contractors on the relative importance of causes of delay in construction industry; and refers to advantages and disadvantages of various techniques used to analyze delays and their conform with SCL protocol. A questionnaire was developed to assess the perceptions of clients, consultants, and contractors on the relative importance of causes of delay in Iranian construction industry. The respondents were asked to indicate their response category on 78 well-recognized construction delay factors identified by authors.

In total, 78 causes of delay were identified through research. The identified causes are combined into seven groups. The field survey included 58 contractors, 55 consultants, and 62 client. Data collected were analyzed by RII and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The authors identified main causes of delay and ten most important causes, according to Table AII, from the perspective of three major groups of participants (clients, consultants and contractors). The ranking of categories of causes of delay, according to Table I, were: client-related causes (RII=0.716); labor and equipment category causes (RII=0.701); contractor-related causes (RII=0.698); material-related causes (RII=0.690); design-related causes (RII=0.666); external causes (RII=0.662); and consultant-related causes (RII=0.662). But according to the discussions and given that determining the contractual responsibility of delay is the most likely source of dispute in construction industry and many techniques have been used in the courts to demonstrate the criticalities of a delay event on the project schedule.

All process-based techniques of delay analysis have been present in this paper and categorized in 11 groups. In order to understand the advantages and disadvantages of them by clients, contractor and consultant, a thorough review conducted to reveal the nature of techniques. In the next step, given that selecting the most appropriate technique based on constraints and specific conditions of each project is one of the most important steps to carry out a successful delay analysis. The authors conformed, all process-based techniques of delay analysis, by SCL protocol and AACEI principles. Finally, the result of this match was brought in order to choose the best technique based on the specific circumstances of each project.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate delay factors within private housing construction in Northern Ireland. Delays are inherent throughout the construction industry and create major difficulties in terms of project performance and client satisfaction. Whilst a voluminous body of international literature has investigated pertinent delay factors within construction projects, there is a relative paucity of research which offers a more delineated exploration of delay factors affecting private housing development schemes, particularly in the UK context.

This study applies questionnaire survey research to examine the relative importance of 75 delay attribute factors for housing construction projects in Northern Ireland. The approach applies both a relative rank and principal component analysis to distil the key factors impinging upon the delay process in housing construction.

The key finding from this research is that delays within the housing construction sector in Northern Ireland can be attributed to deficiencies in site management, ineffective communication strategies and a lack of coordination between key stakeholders involved in the construction process.

The study adds to the existing knowledge base and provides stakeholders with information on factors, which, if properly risk assessed and understood, can improve housing construction performance. The findings are of relevance to construction industry practitioners, policy makers and researchers with lessons learned serving as a basis for future policy development as well as affording an information platform for improving the efficiency and expediency of housing provision internationally.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main causes of delay in public construction projects. This is motivated by feedback from public construction experts concerning substantive delays during the last decade. The study thus seeks to help decision makers in Jordan and elsewhere identify problems and develop mitigating strategies.

Causes of delay were identified from previous related studies and then augmented after consultation with experts. This resulted in 56 delay factors classified into eight groups. The sampling frame for the study was defined in terms of public construction projects (mostly related to roads) owned by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Jordan. A survey was conducted with engineers working as representatives of the owner, contractors or consultants to elicit and evaluate the importance of the 56 delay factors.

Overall, 113 completed questionnaire responses were returned and analyzed to rank the causes of delay using the relative importance index method. Owners and consultants showed more interest in factors related to themselves, while contractors showed highest interest in an external factor related to the owner of services. Four recommendations are put forward for decision makers to mitigate against delays.

This research investigates a relatively large number of delay factors compared to other studies and these are categorized into groups to facilitate thematic understanding. Further, compared to previous related research, this research fills a gap by exploring the opinions of different contract parties.

Projects often face delays and unnecessary use of time due to various factors and reasons, and hence suffer from unfavourable consequences. The purpose of this paper is to identify the universal delay factors from an intensive literature review, complemented by delay factors in major Norwegian construction projects based on empirical data.

The study in which this paper is based includes an intensive literature review, and semi-quantitative open survey questionnaires. This paper addresses frequency and type of delay factors in construction projects, in Norway based on the survey, and worldwide based on the previous studies.

From the study, the causes of delays facing the Norwegian construction industry are: poor planning and scheduling; slow/poor decision-making process; internal administrative procedures and bureaucracy within project organisations; resources shortage (human resources, machinery, equipment); poor communication and coordination between parties; slow quality inspection process of the completed work; design changes during construction/change orders; sponsor/owner/client lack of commitment and/or clear demands (goals and objectives); late/slow/incomplete/improper design; office issues; and users’ issues. And the top 10 universal delay factors are: design changes during construction/change orders; delays in payment of contractor(s); poor planning and scheduling; poor site management and supervision; incomplete or improper design; inadequate contractor experience/building methods and approaches; contractor’s financial difficulties; sponsor/owner/client’s financial difficulties; resources shortage (human resources, machinery, equipment); and poor labour productivity and shortage of skills.

When it comes to the identification of delay factors in major Norwegian projects, the research is based on a sample of 202 respondents from an open survey questionnaire. It should be noted that analysing a large population of respondents that have been asked open questions can be challenging due to the vague findings it might lead to. Also, when it comes to the identification of the universal delay factors, there were different methods used by different authors, within different context. Similar future studies in Norway based on qualitative and quantitative methods will give better verification for the findings.

This paper has documented the critical delay factors/causes in Norway. The results of this study will help project managers, in Norway and elsewhere, to be aware and know about the potential causes of delay in their construction projects, which will help to identify the possible risks in the early phases of the project. Another practical implication is to make project managers and policy makers conscious that delays are quite universal, making it necessary to identify them as a first step.

The identification of delays factors and causes can permit projects to implement mitigation actions to avoid delays, thus allowing delivering schools, hospitals and other necessary infrastructure on schedule or ahead of schedule to society.

This paper highlights most (almost all) of the studies in the literature, including to the study done in Norway, concerning the delay factors in construction projects and large construction projects in general. This wide review of relevant literature will save time other academicians from having to conduct similar studies. This study will assist both academic and professional experts providing more insight about the delay causes in large-scale construction projects.

In Bangladesh (BD), delays in infrastructure are common. Many previous studies have explored the causes of infrastructure delays. However, this study investigated the causes of delays by taking responses from the stakeholders who are responsible for planning, design, funding, approval and implementation. There are few studies that have related infrastructure project delays to heterogeneity in stakeholders’ perceptions.

A structural equation (SE) model is developed with 350 normally distributed data points to understand the heterogeneity in stakeholders’ perceptions regarding delays in infrastructure projects in BD. Additionally, the relative importance index (RII) approach is used to assess the responses, validating the SE model.

The study finds that among the three latent variables, “Project itself related delay” has more influence on delays in infrastructure projects. Among the observed variables under the “project itself related delay” latent variable, “DPP approval process” has the most significance. From the heterogeneity analysis, the study found differences in responses among the stakeholders from “the Engineering Department,” “the Planning Office” and “the Construction Firm/Industry.” An important class of stakeholders believes that their stage is not being delayed and that other stages require attention.

The data sample is 350. More data can improve the accuracy of the findings. Most of the respondents are civil engineers (74%) and represent the owner of the project. Sample data from more stakeholders’ will enhance the accuracy of the result.

This study addresses the requirements of Bangladeshi project stakeholders and how their interactions cause delays in projects. Furthermore, the opinions of other stakeholders are taken into consideration when determining the specific factors of individual stakeholders that are causing delays. Practically, the distance between stakeholders should be reduced. A project manager can play a role in this regard. Initiatives should be taken on how to complete the project quickly by eliminating the requirements discussed among the stakeholders and bureaucratic complications. Instead of placing blame on one another, stakeholders should take the initiative to figure out how to work together to finish the project on schedule. The Planning Commission’s approval of the Development Project Proposal (DPP) and Revised Development Project Proposal (RDPP) should be obtained as soon as possible by owner stakeholders. In order to avoid frequently changing the DPP, owners should also exercise greater caution when choosing contractors. Contractor stakeholders should use efficient and proper manpower and equipment so that unexpected delays are not created during the execution of work. Since the role of the contractor stakeholder is the most important among the three types of stakeholders, the contractor should raise awareness and urge the owners to get the RDPP approved quickly.

The findings from the study can help mitigate delays in infrastructure projects in BD, taking into account the perceptions of various stakeholders.