Client’s impact to the schedule delays in road projects: contractor’s perspective

Abstract

The problem of schedule delay is a frequent and regular phenomenon in the construction projects. Road construction of Sri Lanka is no exception. Client as a key project participant has a control on duration of construction phases. This makes client a casual cause for schedule delay. However, contractor also is a major suffering party due to unprecedented delays. Therefore, this research is aimed at investigating the contractor's perspective of client's impact to the schedule delay in rehabilitation and widening road projects (RWRP) in Sri Lanka. Initially, a comprehensive literature review aided to identify types and effects of delay in road construction projects. Further, identified literature was refined in the sense of Sri Lankan context through three number of preliminary interviews. Next, six cases were selected considering RWRPs in Sri Lanka and steered a document review to investigate the influence of the involvement of the client for delays. Then, a questionnaire survey was carried out to examine the significance of client's causes for delay on contractor's perspective and to identify the client's best practices including suggestions to minimize the delays in RWRPs in Sri Lanka. The analysed data confirmed that delayed interim payments to the contractors due to monetary difficulties of the client, change orders by the client throughout the construction period, delay in land acquisition and delay in handing over the site for construction work as key client causative factors. This study request client to adhere with the identified best practices to mitigate schedule delays in RWRP in Sri Lanka.