An-Najah Staff

The time schedule in construction projects is one of the prime measures for project success. However, the construction industry worldwide is full of projects that were completed with significant time overrun. This problem is critical and has negative effects on construction parties in terms of growth in adversarial relationships, mistrust, litigation, arbitration and cash flow problems. This study aims at identifying the time overrun causes in public construction projects in Saudi Arabia from contractors’ viewpoint. To do so, 62 contractors from Northern Province of Saudi Arabia who are working on public construction completed a structured questionnaire survey. 35 time overrun causes were identified through literature review. The results indicated that the top affecting causes are: additional work, bid award for lowest price, changes in material types and specifications during construction, contract management, fluctuation of prices of materials, improper planning, inflationary pressure, lack of contractor experience, poor labor productivity, and rework.

  The study aims at identifying the factors affecting time overrun in public construction projects Saudi Arabia from consultants’ viewpoint. To do so, 70 consultants working in public construction completed a structured questionnaire survey and the factors were ranked according to their levels of severity, frequency, and importance. 34 factors were identified through interview with some local construction experts and deep literature review. The analysis of the identified 34 factors indicates that the top five important factors affecting time overrun in public construction projects are: improper planning, poor labor productivity, additional works, rework, and lack of contractor experience. The results also indicate that the  top five severe factors affecting time overrun in public construction projects in Saudi Arabia are: bid award for lowest price, poor labor productivity, improper planning, additional work, and lack of contractor experience. While the top five frequent factors are: rework, improper planning, changes in material types and specifications during construction, poor contract management, and poor resource management. 

The construction industry is one of the main sectors that provides important ingredients for the development of an economy. However, many projects experience extensive delays and thereby exceed initial time and cost estimates. Construction delay is considered to be one of the most recurring problems in the construction industry and it has an adverse effect on project success in terms of time, cost, quality, and safety. This study is conducted to investigate the time performance of road construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine to identify the causes of delay and their severity according to contractors and consultants through a questionnaire survey. The field survey included 34 contractors and 30 consultants. A total of 52 causes of delay were identified during the research. The survey concluded that the top five severe delay causes are political situation, segmentation of the West Bank and limited movement between areas, award project to lowest bid price, progress payment delay by owner, and shortage of equipment.