Skip to main content

Delays in Construction Projects, Its Types, Effects and Management

A construction project is basically a temporary endeavor with specified time & cost, initiated to create a unique product, service or result, tend to be limited edition
The project-team comes together to create that unique development on a particular site under circumstances that will never be repeated. They may be complex, demanding high level of co-ordination of permissions, people, goods, plant and materials and construction can begin despite many uncertainties, and as a consequence, delays are common.
Furthermore, the involvement of advanced technologies and owner-desired-changes makes it even more difficult to keep a project on the scheduled track. Coupled with this state are innate uncertainties and sophistication in the physical, financial, and economic environment in which most projects are performed.
Delays in Construction Projects
Such conditions have made completing projects on schedule and on budget a difficult task to accomplish, often leading to claims on cost compensations and time extensions.
Construction delays are considered as time lag in completion of activities from its specified time as per contract or can be defined as late completion or late start of activities to the baseline schedule, directly affecting specified cost.
As a result, there will be extensions of time required which will further result in fine, increased cost due to inflation, termination of contract, court cases etc. or combinations of above stated factors, resulting in delay damages.
Effects of Delays in Construction Projects
Construction delays are often result of a mismanaged event/s and can be seen as a risk for the projects, which if identified, analyzed and managed in a systematic process at inception, could be managed, minimized, shared, mitigated or accepted to give some good results and minimize chances of further delay.
Delay in construction project has a negative effect on clients, contractors, and consultants in terms of growth in adversarial relationships, mistrust, litigation, arbitration, and cash-flow problems.
A construction project may be regarded as a successful endeavor until it satisfies the cost, time, and quality limitations applied to it. However, it is not uncommon to see a construction project failing to achieve its goal within the specified cost, time, and quality.
In order to counter the unforeseen delays beforehand the realm of “Project management” is resorted to which helps mitigating the delays. Project management is the application of knowledge, skill, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirement and requires the effective management of the project management processes.

Processes in Construction Project Management

Project management processes are grouped into five categories known as Project Management Process Groups.
1. Project Initiating
2. Project Planning
3. Project Execution
4. Project Monitoring & Control
5. Project Closing
Identification and study of delays comes under Project Monitoring & Control. If done properly, delays can be minimized by:
a. Teamwork
b. Detailed investigations.
c. Careful & regular monitoring and meetings.
d. Effective management.
e. Collaborative & effective working and coordination.
f. Careful scheduling.

Types of Delays in Construction Projects

However, it is important to understand the types or categories which a delay falls into before analyzing construction delays. To initiate the further mitigation efforts and to convert it into a merit, a clear understanding of types of delays is necessary. The delays are classified or categorized into four basic ways:
A) Critical or non-critical delays
B) Excusable or non-excusable delays
C) Concurrent delays
D) Compensable or non-compensable delays
There is also a need to understand the assimilation between the categories before determining the impact of delays on the project.
  • One must determine whether the delay is critical or non-critical.
  • Additionally, all delays are either excusable or non-excusable.
  • Both excusable and non-excusable delays can be defined as either concurrent or non-concurrent.
  • Delays can be further broken down into compensable or non-compensable delays.
Economic historian Robert E. Wright argues that construction delays are caused by bid gaming, change order artistry, asymmetric information, and post contractual market power. Until those fundamental issues are confronted and resolved, many custom construction projects will continue to come in over budget, past due, or below contract specifications.
The types of delays further described in brief as below;

A) Critical or non-critical Delays:

A delay that is responsible for extending project duration is a critical delay. Few results are mentioned below:
  • Extended Field Overhead
  • Unabsorbed home office overhead
  • Liquidated Damage
  • Idle labor & equipment cost
  • Labor & Material Cost Escalation and many more.
A delay that is not the cause of extended project duration is a non-critical delay; however, it will have an effect in terms of activities getting completed late than scheduled completion. These activities will also affect project cost estimates as reiterated below;
a) Idle labor & equipment cost
b) Labor & Material Cost Escalation and many more.

B) Excusable & non-excusable Delay

A delay where the contractor is entitled for extension of time or compensation or both, under the terms & conditions of contract is excusable delay. In this case, contractor does not have any control on the activity getting delayed. The causes may be;
  1. Force Measure Clause
  2. Natural Calamities
  3. Political/Social Unrest
  4. Terrorist Attacks
  5. Delay from Client (Approvals, Decisions, etc.), etc.
A delay where the contractor is fully responsible for the activities getting delayed and resulted in extending project duration (responsible for critical delays) are non-excusable delays. In this case, the contractor has to bear the risk of cost consequences including the liability to pay damages for itself but possibly for the other parties as well. The causes may be:
  • Delayed Mobilization
  • Delayed Procurement
  • Delayed submission of important documents
  • Planning & Scheduling
  • Critical events that were not highlighted to client on right time, etc.

C) Concurrent Delays in Construction Projects

A situation where more than one delay event occurs at the same time affecting multiple activities simultaneously/independently affecting the completion is concurrent delay. However, not all those events enable the contractor to be entitled for extension of time & cost claim. Importantly, it is the causes of delay rather the delay themselves, that must overlap.

D) Compensable or non-compensable Delays in in Construction Projects

Scenario where contractor is liable for Time Extension & Cost compensation is compensable delays. All compensable delays fall under excusable delays-Whereas, if the contractor is solely at fault for a delay event, it is termed as non-compensable delay. However, non-compensable may fall under critical, non-critical, excusable or non-excusable; depending upon the situation it has created and conditions of contract.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

40+ Construction Tools List with Images for Building Construction

Image
Construction tools list for building construction works such as concrete, brick masonry, leveling, wood works, floor works, slab works, brick laying, plastering etc. is provided. Every construction tool is necessary to achieve good results in the whole project. Along with these tools, the workers should also use some safety tools to prevent them from the unexpected accidents. Construction Tools List for Building Construction Some important construction tools and their uses are listed below: Bolster Boning rod Brick hammer Bump cutter/screed Chisel Circular saw Concrete mixer Cordless drill Crowbar Digging bar End frames Float Gloves Hand saw Helmet Hoe Iron pan Jack plane Ladder Line and pins Mason’s square Measuring box Measuring tape Measuring wheel Pick axe Plumb bob Plumb rule Polishers Putty knife Rammer Rubber Boots Safety glasses Safety helmet Sand screen machine Scratchers Sledge hammer Spade Spirit level Straight edge brushes Til
Read more

Building Materials properties and their Importance in Construction

Image
Building materials or construction materials are the major requirement in this modern age of technology. There are many types of building materials used for different construction works. Properties of Building Materials For a material to be considered as building material, it should have required engineering properties suitable for construction works. These properties of building materials are responsible for its quality and capacity and helps to decide applications of these material. Such properties of building materials are categorized as follows. Physical properties Mechanical properties Chemical properties Electrical properties Magnetic properties Thermal properties Physical Properties of Building Materials These are the properties required to estimate the quality and condition of the material without any external force. The physical properties of engineering materials are as follows. Bulk density Porosity Durability Density Density index Specific gravity
Read more

How to Prevent Errors During Setting Out Building Plan on Ground?

Image
Setting out building plan on ground is one of the most significant steps in building constructions and any errors at this stage would cause considerable problems, if it is not tackled immediately. Errors During Setting Out Building Plan on Ground There are different types of errors that might be made when a structure is set out for example gross errors, systematic errors and random errors. These errors should be prevented and there are some measures to tackle these issues. These measures will be discussed in the following sections. Fig.1: Setting Out of Building Plan on Ground Fig.2: Setting Out Building Plan on Ground How to Prevent Errors During Setting Out of Building? Following are the different types of control that should be carried out to prevent any errors during setting out building plan on ground: Good practice in office On site control Equipment and staff Checks Marking the ground Use of grid offset Good Practice in Office To successfully set
Read more

Factors Affecting Selection of Foundation for Buildings?

Image
Factors which affect selection of foundation for a building can be many from the soil conditions to the type of structure and loads from the building. All the factors are considered during selection of foundation for durable building construction. Factors Affecting Selection of Foundation Following are the factors which affect the selection of suitable foundations for building construction: Loads from building Type of soil Type of structures in neighborhood Type of foundations 1. Loads from Building The first factor considered is loads from building on the foundation. This load is a combination of dead load and imposed loads on the buildings. Other loads such as wind loads, earthquake loads, snow loads etc. are also considered based on location. The quantity of loads depends on the type of structure, number of floors and material of construction. As the number of floors increases, the dead load and imposed loads also increase. Choice of material for construction su
Read more

Ceiling types used in Building Construction and their Applications

Image
Various types of ceiling are used in building construction. Applications, aesthetics, advantages and disadvantages of these types of ceilings are discussed in this article. The ceiling of a building form one of the most important structural elements it terms of functionality as well as creativity which in turn bring good aesthetics to the building interior. This document would help you understand ceilings that in turn would help you understand the most suitable options while undertaking either repair or renovation work of our building interior. The ceiling gains a definition, ” A part of a building which encloses and is exposed overhead in a room, protected shaft or circulation space.” It helps us to create an enclosure and separation between spaces. They provide perfect lighting in the room by controlling diffusion of light. It also controls the sound around a room by making the room sound proof. It, therefore, stops the passage of sound between the rooms. Now ceiling also po
Read more

HOW TO DETERMINE DEPTH OF FOUNDATION

Image
Many factors affects the determination of depth of foundation. Calculation for foundation depth is done based on type of soil, ground water table, loads from structure, bearing capacity of soil and other factors. General factors to be considered for determining depth of foundation are: 1. Load applied from structure to the foundation 2. Bearing capacity of soil 3. Depth of water level below the ground surface 4. Types of soil and depth of layers in case of layered soil 5. Depth of adjacent foundation The minimum depth of foundation should be considered to ensure that the soil is having the required safe bearing capacity as assumed in the design. However, it is advised to carry out soil investigation before deciding on depth of foundation. Soil investigation report will suggest the foundation depth based on the type of structure, soil properties, depth of water table, and all other variable that should be considered. Soil investigation report provides bearing capacity of
Read more

WHAT IS VOLUME BATCHING OF CONCRETE AND HOW IT IS DONE IN FIELD?

Image
WHAT IS VOLUME BATCHING OF CONCRETE? Batching of concrete means measuring different ingredients of concrete (i.e. cement, sand, coarse aggregate and water) before mixing it. When this measurement is done on the basis of volume, we call it  Volume Batching . Below are mentioned some of important points to remember before adopting volume batching method in field. Volume batching is not a good method for measuring concrete materials. It is not applicable in case of reinforced concrete structure. This method of concrete batching may not be economical. It can be only used for unimportant concrete or for small concrete works. HOW VOLUME BATCHING IS DONE IN FIELD? Before batching concrete ingredients in terms of volume, we need to know two things. What is the relative proportion of concrete ingredients in terms of volume? What is the water-cement ratio? After knowing these two things you can proceed to batch concrete ingredients in field. The table shown below can be
Read more

Construction Project Management Softwares

Image
Construction PM Software A new wave of web and cloud apps are streamlining communication, simplifying document management, and improving efficiency in construction management.  Here are some of top construction management tools: Smartsheet Smartsheet  is a spreadsheet-inspired work management tool with robust collaboration and communication features. With pre-built construction templates, it’s easy to create a timeline, track progress, manage documents, and organize the details. Gantt charts are automatically created and auto-adjust every time a change is made, so you can share the most up-to-date timeline with team members or stakeholders. You can upload files from your computer, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, or add a web URL, creating a central repository for all project documentation and contracts. Team members can have discussions directly in the sheet and set reminders and alerts, so everyone is on the same page. And lastly, Smartsheet integrates with ot
Read more

Methods of underpinning, Procedure and Applications in Foundation Strengthening

Image
Underpinning is a method for repair and strengthening of building foundations. Underpinning methods, procedures and their applications in strengthening of different types of foundations is discussed in this article. There are situations where a failure in foundation or footing happens unexpectedly after the completion of whole structure (both sub and superstructure). Under such emergency situation, a remedial method has to be suggested to regain the structural stability. The  method of underpinning  help to strengthen the foundation of an existing building or any other infrastructure. These involve installation of permanent or temporary support to an already held foundation so that additional depth and bearing capacity is achieved. Selection of Underpinning Methods Underpinning methods are selected based on age of structure and types of works involved. Structure categories based on its age: Ancient Structures :Age greater than 150 years Recent Structures : Age between 5
Read more

Methods for Calculating Cost of Engineering Consultant Services

Image
here are several methods by which calculation of engineering consultant services cost can be carried out in construction. It is possible to employ various charging approach at different phase of the consultant services. The application of each method or combination of methods is dependent on nature, scope and complexity of the required engineering services. In this article, these charging consulting services are discussed. Following are the topics discussed for calculating cost of engineering services or consulting services in construction: What are the factors that affect the engineering service cost? Methods for charging engineering services What are the Factors that affect the Engineering Service Cost in Construction? There are various factors that control the cost of engineering services required for a specific project. These factors are outlined below: The conditions at project site. Degree of danger that may be encountered and exposure possibility. System of pr
Read more