Aggregation of factors causing cost overruns and time delays in large public construction projects

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact that cost overruns and time delays exert on large public construction projects to clarify how past and current research regard factors causing cost overruns and time delays in large public construction projects. Design/methodology/approach This paper, which is based on an analysis of a literature selection consisting of 40 journal articles, investigates and ranks the occurrence of and the explanations for cost overruns and time delays in large public construction projects. The study makes use of a kiviat diagram/radar chart in order to visualize multivariate data. Findings Aggregated rankings of important causes of cost overruns and time delays are reported. These show a strong emphasis on the management aspect as a primary cause of cost overruns and delays. Additionally, there seems to be a trend toward deemphasizing the role of financial considerations in explaining cost overruns and delays. It is argued that there needs to be a more rigorous assessment of the impact that each factor has on cost increases and delays based on factual observed data as opposed to retrospective accounts from questionnaire respondents. Research limitations/implications Only public construction projects have been considered. The results will not be directly applicable to privately funded construction projects and/or projects of a smaller size. Originality/value The use of trend data, as illustrated in a kiviat diagram, showing how different ranking factors causing cost overruns and time delays has changed in importance over time.

Delay Causes and Emerging Digital Tools: A Novel Model of Delay Analysis, Including Integrated Project Delivery and PMBOK

“…• Digital design communication tools: Digital Twin, Building Information Systems (BIM) including Revit, ArchiCAD, Navisworks, BIMx, BricsCAD, Archibus, Constructor, IntelliCAD, VisualARQ, Revizto; Geographic Information Systems (GIS) including QGIS, ArcGIS, and ArcMap [17]. The literature frequently reports that design mistakes, errors, changing orders and scopes, later approvals, and late technical decision makings were the main causes of delay in different contexts [95,99,104]. • Digital communication systems: cloud-based tools, emails, smart phones, and radio communication systems.…”

“…• Digital communication systems: cloud-based tools, emails, smart phones, and radio communication systems. Some studies report that the communication and the coordination between different parties were poor [27,95,96,99,109].…”

“…The effects of new digital tools and technologies on delay have not been evaluated in the literature. Some of the key digital technologies are listed as follows: The literature frequently reports that design mistakes, errors, changing orders and scopes, later approvals, and late technical decision makings were the main causes of delay in different contexts[95,99,104]. • Digital communication systems: cloud-based tools, emails, smart phones, and radio communication systems.…”

A Review on the Critical Factors Causing Delay of Delivery Time in Construction Projects

“…Also, the studies in which the factors causing delay in construction were collected and identified from [35,50,3,34,36,51,37,52,32,53]. Furthermore, [5,33,14,38,39,54,38,40,41], were reviewed to collect the main and sub-factors of causing time overrun in construction projects. In general, in this review, an inclusive category on the causes of construction delay was identified after the detailed review of the published articles.…”

Big Data Analytics System for Costing Power Transmission Projects

“…Many factors contribute to cost overruns, but poor cost estimation practices are a major influencing factor (e.g. Adam et al, 2017;Larsen et al, 2016). Aljohani et al (2017) point out that estimation methods used in practice are still affected by the estimator's bias and varying degrees of experience.…”